Saturday, March 07, 2009

Emsworth Auction

Yesterday, my partner and I visited the Emsworth Church Path Auction which is run by friends of ours, the delightfully eccentric Hilary and Michael. Whilst there, I made an unsuccessful bid on a W H Earp landscape painting - my maximum bid was £42 which on later internet research proved to be well under its deserved price. I had heard of the artist, but wasn't sure enough about it's profitability to make any more of a concerted effort to win it. I also hadn't bargained on someone else in the room also taking a shine to it as most of the other "art" in the auction was raising pretty paltry sums of money. Anyhow, the better man/woman won and I left empty handed. However, also whilst there, I spied a truly fantastic wash bowl by MASONS which had a huge green dragon and enameled black and orange border decoration. It reminded me of some wash sets I'd seen at the equally fantastic Stansted House near Rowlands Castle (Hampshire). If this lot hadn't been quite so disastrously damaged and poorly re-assembled, I may not have been able to stop my bidding hand from rising. On returning home and after a surf on the internet, I came across the above plate by Bishop & Stonier for sale in the USA in an auction of other Blue & White china. This stunning Dragon plate would look amazing displayed on a wall or as the centre piece to a Bisto collection and strangely, I think it would work better as a single piece and not as part of a set.

2 comments:

The Ticcy Knitter said...

took ourselves off to Woking today for an antiques & collectables fair at the leisure centre. It was the first time i'd been to that one and was quite suprised by the size of it and the diversity of stalls. One piece jumped out at me - a plate with this dragon design! BUT, it wasn't by Bisto, but by Royal Worcester. Now, that raises a conumdrum... did the seller on ebay who listed the plate i've blogged about get his words mixed up and was he actually describing some other lot he was selling...or, did Royal Worcester and Bishop & Stonier use the same transfer print design?

The Ticcy Knitter said...

went to an antiques/collectables fair at Chichester today and saw that the person who bought the Earp painting i'd bid on, was selling it there for £125! still a very good buy.

Also, saw several pieces of Worcester with this dragon pattern - and if it's not exactly the same, it's as near as damnedest

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Sometimes, life doesn't turn out the way you expected. And sometimes, it is exactly as it was 'meant' to be. I believe that life is a both a learning experience and an obstacle course to be climbed and clambered over in the most creative way possible! In doing so, you'll get to where you should be even if it's not where you'd imagined.