Collectors invited to take a pew.... or eight

ANTIQUES collectors will be invited to take a pew... or eight at an auction in the Cotswolds next week.

Eight Victorian oak pews from Cirencester parish church will be offered for sale, with a guide price of £150 to £250 each.

The pews were made for a major restoration of St John Baptist church in 1865. They were removed during the most recent renovation – a £2 million overhaul which started in 2008.

The building works that look place in the 1860s were overseen by the renowned architect Sir George Gilbert Scott, and the pews are decorated in the gothic revival taste so beloved of many Victorians, the architect included.

The pews will be sold by Cirencester auctioneers Moore Allen and Innocent on Friday, September 16, raising vital funds for the church restoration project.

And it won't be the first time the auctioneers have sold surplus Victorian artefacts from the church. In 2008 nearly 1,000 Victorian floor tiles were removed and sold by the auctioneers, raising £4,410 for the restoration project.

Lovers of architectural antiques will also be delighted with the garden ornaments section of the sale.

Among the attractions are a brass sundial on a stone plinth, with an estimate of £300 to £500, staddle stones in various sizes, with estimates ranging from £100 to £150 each, ornate salt glazed chimney pots – which make excellent rhubarb forcers – at £50 to £100 each and an iron water pump, which should make around £50 to £80.

Back indoors, a pair of pottery horses in the Tang Dynasty manner, are expected to achieve between £200 to £300 for the pair – more if Chinese collectors become interested.

Although they look like they date from the 1400s, the horses – which stand at 16 inches tall – are more likely to be copies from the late 1800s.

And another pair attracting some attention are a couple of teddy bears, dating from the 1930s to 1950s, which are being sold in aid of Leukaemia Research.

Both are in a condition experts like to call 'well-loved'. The rarer red bear, standing at 13 inches tall and with leather pads on his paws, is likely to attract bids of around £80 to £100, while his light brown cousin – a little shorter at 11 inches – carries an estimate of £50 to £80.

The bears are being touted as a warm-up act for a single owner toy sale on September 29, when almost the entire collection of the former Park House Toy Museum in Stow-on-the-Wold – numbering thousands of individual teddy bears, dolls, puppets, train sets, model cars and tin soldiers – will go under the hammer.

For an auction catalogue, log on to www.mooreallen.co.uk

Please note that the correct name of Cirencester parish church is 'St John Baptist' and not 'St John the Baptist'. This is not an omission!

One of the pews from Cirencester parish church	Staddle stones
Pottery horses in the Tang Dynasty manner	A selection of garden ornaments