Fox mask caught by silver hunters for £5000 in 470-lot sale...
11th April 2018
Lawrences’ week of Spring sales in Crewkerne started with over 470 lots of silver and vertu and there was enthusiasm for all that was on offer.
A small and rare wine taster from 1665 dated from the reign of Charles II and doubled expectations to make £1460 whilst a finely chased stirrup cup in the form of a fox mask from 1845 also outran its £2500-3000 estimate to make £5000. Two other “drinkers’ lots” proved popular when an 18th Century beer jug, possibly Colonial, brought good cheer at just over £2000 and a Victorian ewer or claret jug made a corking £1220. An impressive suite of four graduated meat dishes from 1831, sold with four plated dish covers to match, soared to £9760.
Later in the sale, a finely decorated French ivory fan found a warm welcome and made £1830 whilst a miniature portrait of Captain Robert Woolf Junior, finely painted by John Smart Junior (the sitter’s own cousin) combined a dashing subject with this unusual link between artist and sitter and made £2190.
