Quality antiques hold their value

QUALITY antiques continue to hold their value, despite the recession, comes the good news from auctioneer Moore Allen & Innocent following its first selected sale of 2009.

Over £58,000 worth of antiques were sold to UK and foreign buyers at the Cirencester salerooms on Friday, March 6.

“That’s very close to the figure we achieved last year,” said auctioneer Philip Allwood, “but with around 100 fewer lots.

“If people are holding on to their antiques believing the market is weaker in 2009, the message is clear – the market is pretty strong. Good quality antiques are holding their price and, in many cases, making more than this time last year.”

The top price of the day was reserved for a full set of eleven Wilkinson Toby jugs – each standing between nine and twelve inches tall – depicting Allied leaders from the First World War, including prime minister David Lloyd George, admiral ‘Hell Fire Jack’ Jellicoe, field marshall Sir Douglas Haig, King George V, Lord Kitchener and American president Woodrow Wilson.

The jugs were designed by Sir Francis Carruthers Gould and were issued in limited numbers starting in 1917 – while war still raged in Europe – and concluding in 1919. The least common figures were produced in limited editions of 250, meaning there can only be 250 complete sets of all eleven leaders.

With an estimate of £4,000 and £6,000, the hammer fell at a respectable £7,400.

A terracotta figure of three black boys sitting on a wall, which graced the front cover of the catalogue, also performed well. The early 20th century Haniroff for Goldscheider terracotta figure, which stood at over 57cms (22 ins) tall, sold for £2,200 against an estimate of £800 to £1,200. Despite anticipated interested from the American market, the piece was bought by a British collector.

Meanwhile, late 19th century porcelain figures from the Russian Gardner Factory in Moscow both achieved good prices. A figure group of three bearded peasants, the central figure playing an accordion, was sold for £900, at the top end of the £600 to £900 estimate, while two separate figures, being sold as one lot, featuring a blind man and an old woman carrying a basket, sold for £740 against an estimate of £300 to £500.

Finally, a large Roman pot unearthed near Swindon generated plenty of local interest. The 2ft tall by one-and-a-half feet wide pot was found in pit with other Roman artefacts in June 2008 during excavations in Highworth, not far from Ermin Street, which connected the Roman towns of Glevum (Gloucester) and Silchester in Hampshire via Corinium (Cirencester).

The pot has contemporary clay ‘stitching’ down one side, suggesting it was broken and then mended by its Roman owners. The hammer fell at £740 – just a few pounds shy of the £800 estimate. The artefact was bought by a local museum.

The next antique and general sales will be held at the Norcote salerooms, Cirencester, from 10am on Friday, March 20 and Friday, April 3. The next specialist sale is the selected picture sale on Friday, April 17. For more information log on to www.mooreallen.co.uk or call 01285 646050 for a catalogue.

A Haniroff for Goldscheider terracotta figure of three black boys sitting on a wall	Three bearded peasants, from the Russian Gardner Factory in Moscow
A large Roman pot unearthed near Swindon	A full set of eleven Wilkinson Toby jugs depicting Allied leaders from the First World War