Clarice Cliff Feature Articles

My impression today was a quiet but steady sale with no new surprises.  The first real ‘gasp’ moment was lot 4 a pair of Whitefriars Victorian glass shades which smashed through the estimate to eventually sell for £1000.  Things then settled down a bit with most glass performing as expected with lots that clearly stood out - such as lot 13 the Keith Murray Cactus vase which was always going to clear it's estimate.  The glass seemed to be selling in the room rather than online and some very stylish items were snapped up quite reasonably in some cases.  Lot 23 was the next real sleeper selling for £600 but it was a truly whacky piece attributed to Whitefriars. 

We finally arrived at the more familiar textured Whitefriars wares and they all went well with some job lots faring better than others.  I was surprised that lot 42 the TV vases only sold for £280 as they have been featured heavily in the past on a certain BBC TV Saturday morning cooking show.  Once we came to the Banjo vases it was no surprise they sold for around the £900-£950 mark which was good to see as they had fallen back a little in the past few years but now seem to interest buyers once more.  The rest of the Whitefriars lots were keenly contested by room and Internet bidders and I personally think the two lots with two smaller Drunken bricklayer vases were reasonable selling at £280 with the individual larger versions selling for £380 and £450.

There were two Tiffany lots in the sale and the small desk lamp sold within estimate at £2800 on the telephone.  The floor lamp had a very noticeable crack in the shade but was still a lovely piece and a room bidder snapped it up at £1200.

Lalique still held reasonably strongly and lot 104 the modern Night and Day perfume flacon and 5 other pieces annihilated the estimate to sell for £1000.  Hardly surprising when the Night and Day flacon used to sell in Lalique boutiques for over £500 when first released.  The Lalique statue lot 112 did the top end of the estimate but had a bit of a flaw in the moulding on the front and not a very heavy saturation in the opalescence which might have held it back a little bit for major collectors.

It was noted by myself that if you wanted designer names “on the cheap” there was the opportunity today.  Some of the modern glass collection included names such as Alvar Aalto en mass, lot 135 was proof of this with 33 pieces selling for £10 and each piece was fully marked!

Onto the pottery finally and the first real humdinger was lot 175 a Della Robbia charger which was beautiful and sailed away within estimate at £2800. Doulton pieces including items by Hannah Barlow and Jade and Flambe wares all stalled at quite a bit under bottom estimates, so failed to sell.

The Moorcroft selection was a mixed bag of modern and 1950s pieces which in a couple of cases were very large ‘job lots‘.  Lot 202 had many items with attached Moorcroft paper labels and the estimate was superseded to sell at £850.  The lot was a sure fire way for a part-time dealer or relative newcomer to Moorcroft to start to collect or sell a substantial collection.  The only real vintage piece of Moorcroft (lot 205) failed to hit reserve at £750 and therefore was passed.

The Louis Wain lots did as expected with lot 233 the Lucky Futurist cat fairing the best at £1000, but then it did have an original paper label stuffed inside which probably helps a bit!  The other items sold but were a little scruffy in the pot so may have been hampered slightly.  As a note, the Louis Wain items were made by several firms not only here in the UK but also on the Continent and in the USA. All those offered today were English versions.

One lot which was always going to do well was number 254 which in the catalogue showed only part of a Shelley Yellow Block tea set.  On inspection the lot also came with several other Vogue shaped cups and saucers and side plates in pattens such as Green J.  It romped home at £850 on a £200-400 estimate.  Again I overheard a lot of people discussing the merits of splitting up into trios and selling on.

We finally came to the small Clarice Cliff section which had some nice items but was never going to set the world alight.  The Red Roofs vase was better in the catalogue than in the pot as it was the dark brown café-au-lait which totally dominated the pattern.  It was passed at just under estimate but may have gone on after sales.  It was pretty much the same for all the other Clarice lots thereafter with only lot 264 selling as it was again a possible breaking lot for selling on.

The Latona Tree items were probably always going to struggle as it's a pattern which very much divides opinion and rarely sets an auction room alight.  The two nicest pieces in my opinion were the Conical bowl ( it had a little frit on one of the feet) and lot 271 the 358 shape vase. Latona is notorious for crazing and dirt settling onto the pots and this was the case with the majority of the Tree collection as well as oxidisation to the paint work on the purples and blues mainly.  As previouly mentioned the part morning set was all Latona glazed except the main teapot which though not noticeable to most people would certainly have been of concern to a serious Latona collector.  The two pieces that did sell were the Conical bowl at £400 on commission and the stepped 369a vase at £800 again on commission.  They may have seemed reasonable because of the shape but it did have a hairline crack on the front rim of the vase which did go right through.

The rest of the sale had a good selection of  classic Deco ceramics by the likes of Goldscheider and Essevi which all did well selling either just below or on estimate, so no surprises there.  Further on lot 345 a Biba shop mannequin just kept running and running causing more than an odd eyebrow to be raised.  On a £200-£400 estimate the lot finally sold for £2600!  They were stylish things and very original, a little creepy for my tastes but I have seen individual busts do £400 or £500 so maybe this price wasn't so crazy?

I noted quite a lot of very large job lots which were not fully shown in the catalogue.  They were clearly ex-dealer stock as some still had price tags on them!  The most exciting for Clarice collectors was lot 299 which had two Wilkinson Oriflamme vases along with a plethora of other items which on an estimate of £100-£150 surely must have been worth a punt for a little bit of dealing?  The two Oriflamme vases were marked up at nearly £200 each by the dealer!

Despite the imminent release of the new Bond film the only lot to fly was the original sketch for the Spectre HQ which hammered at £2600.

Furniture seemed to sell well as there was a lot of good quality names in the sale and people were buying based on themes and styles and knew what they wanted so helped to keep prices strong on lots.

I personally have a fascination for Deco sculpture and this sale had a nice selection, albeit a lot quite tired in condition.  The Preiss statue lot 506 seemed to run and run to sell for £4800 on the telephone.  It was nice but very noticeably had damage to at least two of the fingers which would have been difficult and costly to repair.  The other smaller Lorenzl figures sold ok but wear and tear on the finishes held them back to sell within estimate..  I was particularly keen to see the result of the cover girl Lorenzl as she was enormous, weighed a tonne and was just breathtaking in scale.  On the day she fell short of estimate to pass at £7800.  A true stunner but maybe the sheer size of her held it back?

Unfortunately I had to leave not long after so the rest of the sale results you will have to source directly from Woolley & Wallis who seem to post almost immediately so you should find with ease.

Overall I think Associate Director Michael Jeffery will be pleased with the majority of the sale and despite quite a few passed lots I expect after sales might push those sales figures upwards. The actual room was quiet with very few people coming and going during the sale but internet and telephone people were kept fairly busy the whole time I was there.  There were many bargains to be had and with a business brain there surely were many opportunities for job lots to extract quite a bit of profit in some cases?

Edited by Doreen Mann

21st October 2015