Summers Place auction results

Billingshurst, West Sussex UK
Summers Place held a live auction of garden statuary and fossil decoration on 25 May 2010 and a sealed bid on 28 May 2010. Below is a selection of the results;



Lot 21: A pair of Italian late 19th Century large (43in) carved white marble urns. Estimated price £5,000-8,000, price realised £15,500.



Lot 67: A pair of late 19th/early 20th century impressive wrought iron lamp standards, 10ins high. Reputedly removed from Windsor Great Park. Estimated at £7,000-10,000, price realised £20,900.



Lot 77: An unusual South German/North Italian carved fruit wood wall planter, 83in high, from the second half of the 19th century. Estimated at £5,000-7,000, price realised £23,300.



Lot 86: A Coalbrookdale Lily of the Valley pattern seat stamped CB Dale Co, circa 1870, 62in wide. This design, number 171578 was registered and patented at the Public Records Office on the 8th February 1864 by Coalbrookdale and was seat number 36 in their castings catalogue of 1875. Estimated at £5,000-8,000, price realised ££18500.



Lot 92: A restored early 20th century unusual Art Nouveau wrought iron bridge, 101in long. Estimated at £6,000-10,000, price realised £14300.



Lot 115: A pair of 20th century Cretan large and unusual terracotta storage jars. Estimated at £3,000-5,000, price realised £31,700.



(sealed bid) Lot 359: A modern painted wood and slate tiled “granary“ summerhouse by Peter Hill Jones, 370cms.; 146ins high by 290cm.; 114ins square. Estimated at £3,000-5,000, price realised £13,100.



(sealed bid) Lot 368: A modern painted wood and lead duck house, 142cm.; 56ins high by 82cm.; 32½ins wide. The floating duck house is based on an 18th century building reconstructed at Skansen, in Stockholm.

This floating duck house is identical to the one bought by the Tory M.P. Sir Peter Viggers for his constituency home in Hampshire in 2006. It subsequently achieved a degree of notoriety when it was discovered that the M.P. had tried to claim the purchase cost as part of his parliamentary expenses. Sir Peter‘s garden purchase has been endorsed by television property guru Kirstie Allsopp in a message on Twitter. In response to the revelations in the Daily Telegraph she wrote: “Wow...floating duck islands are a winner, they protect ducks from foxes, does this mean we can all have one now?“

Estimated at £1,800-2,500, price realised £4,070.

Summers Place live auction results