A BID FOR LOVE
From gems by John Singer Sargent and Picasso to a vintage ‘Passion Tester’ slot machine, Caroline Wheater picks her auction highlights
I’m quite jealous of the bidder who won this fun ‘Passion Tester’ at auction. What a talking point!
!" A Piece of Picasso Estimate £3,500-£5,500 Sold
Based in Paris in the 1940s, the worldfamous Spanish artist Pablo Picasso loved visiting the South of France and, in 1946, went to the annual po!ery festival at Vallauris. At the Madoura Po!ery stand he admired the work of Suzanne Ramié and remarked how he’d like to work with clay. Suzanne invited him to visit her
po!ery works and, by 1947, when Picasso had moved for keeps to the area, she had cleared him a space in which to create his own designs. He decorated vases, jugs and plates with female faces, bulls, dancers and his favourite pets, including an owl and a goat called Esmeralda. He made an original prototype then, if he liked it, would allow the po!ery to reproduce it in limited editions of 25, 50, 100 or 500, inexpensively priced to the public. Buying a Picasso ceramic is still the most a "ordable way of owning a piece of the artist’s work and this Hibou pitcher came up at Christie’s Picasso Ceramics Online sale this spring. It was conceived in 1954 and is part of an edition of 500 – its collectability and look ensured it climbed way past its estimate. onlineonly.christies.com
!" Flirty & Fun Estimate £300-£500 Sold £680
Over 20 years, Ray Stacey built up a collection of musical boxes, jukeboxes and slot machines that he named The History of Sound. In February, he consigned 28 vintage slot machines to The Canterbury Auction Galleries. This 1950s oak ‘Passion Tester’, by Tableau & Automata Amusement Device, has 12 ‘passion levels’ that light up when a penny is popped in. Overall, the collection made £38,000, with bids from as far as Australia.
#. Garden Elegance Estimate £250-£350 Sold £750
Glasshouses became popular in the second half of the 19th century and were used for growing !owers, exotic orchids and fruit such as "gs (to step inside restored Victorian glasshouses visit West Dean Gardens in Sussex). The major po#ery factories produced ceramic ‘garden seats’ and Minton and Wedgwood favoured oriental-style decoration. These Minton transfer-printed stools sold at Drewea#s recently and one bears the date, c1875.
$. Big Name Art Estimate £10,000-£15,000 Sold £8,750
The sumptuous society portraits of artist John Singer Sargent RA still draw crowds today when exhibited. This black chalk drawing of Alice, the 4th Marchioness of Salisbury (61cm x 40.5cm), was made by him in 1923 and came up for sale at Sotheby’s recently. The auction house has sold a mix of the painter’s oils, watercolours and drawings over the years, so if you’re a fan, keep watch on upcoming sales and you may nab yourself a bargain.
!. Japanese Touch Estimate £4,000-£6,000 Sold £9,000
Pieces by the esteemed 19thcentury designer and polymath Edward William Godwin rarely come up for sale, so when Lyon & Turnbull auctioned furniture from the Paul Reeves collection, buyers !ocked. Godwin described the look of his pared- down Aesthetic movement furniture as Anglo-Japanese, and his ebonised drawing room cabinet, c1880, featured in William Wa"’s seminal trade catalogue of 1877. Art Furniture
". Woven Wonder Estimate £!"" -£#"" Sold £$%&
Considering that new wool rugs can cost thousands to buy, antique rugs o#er great value, such as this Chelaberd example (241cm x 119cm), which was made in the South Caucasus. It would have been handwoven on a loom, and the di #erent colours achieved through the use of vegetable dyes. Chelaberd rugs are also known as Eagle Kazaks because of their common central medallion pa"ern that resembles a sunburst.