We’re having a Vintage Year!

It has been a Summer of repeated triumphs for Clevedon Salerooms. In addition to the unprecedented success of the Barrow Court Sale reported in the previous issue, the Summer Fine Art sale held on the same day also hit many high notes. Over 90% of items offered on the day found new homes, with superb prices across all categories.

The sale opened in fine style with a fine George III neoclassical style statuary marble chimneypiece or probably George III period, in cararra and sienna marble fireplace. Purchased in the 1980s from a Cotswolds dealer, it had been intended to adorn a townhouse in The Circus in Bath, the former home of Sir Thomas Gainsborough, no less, but its former owner never got round to it and it spent the next thirty five years in pieces on the floor of his cellar where it was discovered by Clevedon Salerooms Senior Valuer Mark Huddleston. Provenance, decorative appeal and rarity combined to send sparks flying and it sold well above expectations, online against strong commission bidding, at £7,200.

That impressive result fell just short of the sale’s highest price, which was taken by a very arresting oil on canvas still life with flowers by Dorothea Sharpe. This was a classic work by a figure widely recognised as one of England's finest female and Impressionist artists and fevered bidding saw it quickly eclipse its estimate to sell for £7,500.

The sale was a resounding success, but there was no time for auctioneers to rest on their laurels, as there immediately followed the Specialist Wine Sale. Chiefly drawn from two significant private collections, almost two hundred lots of fine wine were offered. Highlights included six bottles of 2005 Domaine Leflaive Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru Burgundy which sold for £5,200 and a single bottle of 1985 Krug Champagne Clos du Mesnil, Brut Blanc de Blancs, which also smashed its estimate, selling for £3,200. Auctioneers then raised a glass and toasted a landmark day and already vintage year for Clevedon Salerooms.

Summer plans continue apace at Clevedon, with two sales in August, and an outside valuation event in Stoke Bishop, Bristol on Tuesday 15th August, the final entry day for the next Quarterly Fine Art sale in September for which entries are now invited. ■

• clevedonsalerooms.com; @chrisyeo_antiques (Instagram)