Clevedon Salerooms held their Spring Specialist Sale on Thursday 12th March. With 540 lots on offer, competitive bidding throughout the day saw auctioneers rewarded with strong prices across all sections.
The first quarterly Fine Art sale of 2026 certainly had some treats in store for eager bidders. One of the most attractive was an oil on canvas by British artist Charles Haigh Wood, (1856-1927). 'Private and Confidential', showed fashionably dressed young ladies of the era of Jane Austen seated in an interior before a bay window, eagerly discussing the contents of a letter, maybe from a suitor, all rendered in fine detail. Bidders responded enthusiastically and it quickly wrote off its estimate to sell for a noteworthy £3,400.
The last few months have seen record leaps in the price of gold and silver and the sale saw this trend continue in fine style. Top of the tree in the Jewellery section and highest price in the whole sale, was a diamond 18ct yellow and white gold suite, comprising necklace, bracelet, and earrings, weighing 100g gross approx. it sold for £7,000. Also performing well amongst the jewellery, a German yellow metal (585) flexible fancy link bracelet, which sold for £3,400, also an Art Deco diamond and sapphire unmarked white metal three stone ring weighing approx 5.3g gross, which sold for £3,000. The Midas touch continued with the Silver where a late Victorian silver twin handled trophy cup with embossed rococo style decoration and weighing in at an impressive 1700g approx, sold for an equally impressive £2,500. Also performing well, a set of six Elizabeth II silver goblets by Asprey & Co, which sold for £2,000 and a George V silver salver of 1400g approx., which sold for £1,800.
Watches also had a good day. A late Victorian 18ct gold chronograph pocket watch by John Cashmore weighing 118g gross approx., sold for £3,600, whilst those with more contemporary tastes were well served with an 18k white gold bracelet watch by Fred, Paris, which sold for £5,400 and a Carrera Heuer 'red tachymetre' wristwatch which sold for £2,800.
The market for pop and rock memorabilia is in rude health and when it comes to big prices, anything connected with The Beatles can inevitably be relied upon to deliver. And so it was that hopes were high for a collection of showbusiness autographs from the 1960s, including the Fab Four, which had been collected by a close friend of the vendor’s family who had worked as a TV make-up artist at the time. Those hopes were certainly not in vain as, after some very spirited bidding, the gavel fell at an equally fab £4,800.
Amongst pictures, it was a chalk and watercolour wash study of the Head of a youth attributed to Jan de Bray, (Dutch, 1626/7-1697) that stirred bidders into action. Provenance was a key factor in this case as the picture had been in the collection of famed portraitist Sir Thomas Lawrence, and it took the top price of £4,000. An oil on panel by Campbell Archibald Mellon, ROI, RBA, (1876-1955), 'Beach Scene, Gorleston' also performed well, selling for £2,800.
Whilst saleroom tastes have for a while now been geared towards the contemporary, it was the traditional favourite Meissen which shone in the Ceramics section. An early 20th century figure 'After the Bath', modelled by Robert Ockelmann, sold for £1,900, whilst a figure of a female bowls player after a model by Walter Schott sold for £1,500.
Top price amongst a strong showing of Modern Design was for a mid-century Danish desk by esteemed designer Arne Wahl Iversen for Vinde Mobelfabrik, which sold for £1,500. Also scoring highly in the style stakes, a Tiffany Studios, a counter-balance patinated bronze desk lamp with ‘favrile’ glass shade, sold for £1,200.
As always, the sale concluded with Furniture where a rare 'Black Forest' carved and stained wood hall chair in the form of a bear, Swiss, circa 1900, attributed to Rudolf Linder of Brienz, modelled seated upright on a log with outstretched arms ready to deliver a bear hug, sold for £3,600.
With the Spring Fine Art sale now done and dusted, attention moves to a busy calendar, with Valuation days at Clevedon Bowling Club on March 24th and our ever-popular Interiors sales on April 9th and 30th. Clevedon Salerooms next Quarterly Fine Art sale for which entries are now invited will be on Thursday June 12th.