Tennants Auctioneers at Leyburn had an exceptionally strong sale on Saturday 31 January at their Leyburn saleroom with 750 lots totalling over £114,000. It proves that despite the ‘down turn’ more people seem to be buying at auction with a packed room comprising of dealers and private buyers.
The sale had a specialist section of vintage costume, samplers, dolls and teddy bears. The costume appears to be a continually thriving market with many buyers making the journey or buying through viewing our sale online from the North and the South of the country. The costume ranged from an Edwardian two piece lace wedding outfit which realised £360, a black 1920’s velvet fitted full length evening coat with ermine collar realised £200, through to the 1950’s and later with a sumptuous collection of party and day dresses. Accessories also featured in the sale with two crocodile handbags reaching £220, and Edwardian boots and 1920’s evening shoes realising £200. Top price in the doll section was £550 for a Kathe Kruse 1930’s fabric doll. We were fortunate to sell more Quaker samplers, two made the long journey up from Cornwall after the vendor viewed on the internet the previous successes that we have had selling them, and a small red alphabet sampler from the Sidcot School realised £800, and a medallion sampler with similarities to the Ackworth school realised £1200.
Tennants also had a celebrity porter and auctioneer for the day being filmed under the close scrutiny of the BBC, after claims that his selling technique was ‘rusty’ having not sold for several years he secured an excellent price of £840 for a small micro mosaic hinged box. The furniture section of the sale seems to be realising stronger prices each sale with a top price of £900 for a pair of decorative Blackamoor side tables and consistently strong prices throughout.
Auction info www.tennants.co.uk