Successful Specialist Sale

Clevedon Salerooms held their Spring Specialist Fine Art Sale on Thursday 9th March. Having generated a great deal of pre-sale interest, lively bidding was in evidence with impressive results achieved throughout the day.

Unused wallpaper isn’t the sort of fare normally couched to get valuer’s pulses racing but when it’s Chinese hand-painted wallpaper it can be a different story. This was certainly the case with the discovery of fourteen rolls during a routine valuation at a North Somerset country property, which turned out to be one of the day’s star lots. Unused and still in its packaging, as it had been from the day it was bought fifty years ago, there was initially nothing to excite. Unrolled, however, a freely painted panoramic landscape of trees and mountains was revealed. Offering, as it did, decorative flair combined with a strong appeal to the bullish Chinese market hopes were high. The saleroom’s photographer surpassed themselves with no fewer than forty-five online images which really showed this extraordinary artwork to its full advantage. Reliable online images give buyers the confidence to bid high and in this case their hard work certainly paid off as strong commission bids, vied with fevered online bidding and four telephone bidders. In the end it was the internet that won out with the gavel going down at an estimate smashing £7,200.

Decorative appeal was also the key to the day’s best performing lot; a rare early 19th century satinwood trio of Pembroke table, and two demi-lune card tables. Heralding from an address in Clifton, what added considerable lustre to their appeal was the fact that each piece retained its original painted and gilded floral decoration and after some spirited bidding the handsome threesome left their estimate standing to sell for an impressive £8,000.

Clevedon Salerooms next Quarterly Specialist Sale, for which entries are now invited, will be on Thursday June 1st and will include a major consignment of early oak furniture and other artworks from historic Barrow Court in North Somerset. Free valuation days are held at the Saleroom every Monday (except Bank Holidays), together with regular Bristol valuation days at Stoke Lodge. Please visit the website for more information www.clevedonsalerooms.com. ■

• clevedonsalerooms.com; @chrisyeo_antiques (Instagram)