Thursday, July 01, 2010

'No Reserves' success at Great Northern Architectural

Tattenhall, Cheshire UK

Auctioneers Richard Winterton held a sale on Tuesday 29 June on behalf of Penham Excel Bailiffs. The sale consisted of 800 lots of architectural items from Great Northern Architectural Antiques, who have recently gone into liquidation.

Cataloguer and auctioneer for the sale Neil Grenyer said, "As pretty much everything was in without reserve, from an auctioneers point of view it was very successful with very few lots not finding new homes. Viewing was steady throughout Monday and Tuesday morning and around 150-200 people registered to bid either in person, on the telephone or left commission bids. There was a good mix of private and trade buyers including from the USA and Canada. The highlight of the 220 lots that were outside in the courtyard was a sandstone portico that was chased to £4,600 by a private buyer and a member of the trade, with the private buyer winning. Elsewhere, a series of carved stone keystones made between £350 and £500 a piece, a wrought iron weather vane made £450 and a fairground barrel organ 'The Mermaid' sold for £500 where the retail asking price was less than £350!

"Inside, the best sellers were the stained glass panels and vestibule arches with many pieces selling to buyers over the telephone, although a couple of Arts and Crafts style doors with leaded and coloured glass took £500 a piece from buyers in the room. A large Art Nouveau leaded and stained glass vestibule complete with french doors sold in the room for £1,500.

"The areas where this sale struggled were the cast iron fire inserts, probably due to the shear quantity being offered, and the mixed lots of odds and ends which sometimes struggled to raise a bid. The last section of the sale was the brass door and window furniture which was sold in large quantities. Although much was genuine reclaimed old pieces, many of the knockers and door knobs were brand new, with the owner of the foundry bidding to buy them back - unfortunately for him, the bidding was so strong that they were often selling for more than the retail prices he would normally charge!"

The sale was attended by a number of trade buyers.

Drew Pritchard said, "Hot hot hot . . . boiling conditions and mainly trade buyers. Total bedlam as lots were pulled from the sale at the last minute, mainly the star pieces due to ownership issues. A superb stone entranceway was bought for £4,600 plus commission by the wife of the owner of a major home builder for their Cheshire house.

"Myself, Rupert from Leominster Reclamation, and Beeston Reclamation were the big buyers of the day. Also in attendance were Colin Scull, Laurence Green from Insitu, and numerous other Salvo dealers. I bought the massive cupola that has graced the car park for the last 20 years and a collection of carved friezes from a Manchester hospital. Prices were all over the place, which is typical for this type of auction, and the auctioneers acting for the bailiffs took no prisoners. Lots of items sold for £1 to £5 for complete pallet loads."


Above: A sandstone portico, after a long bidding war between a trade and private buyer it was eventually brought by a private for £4,600.


Above: some of Drew Pritchard's items from the sale being collected from Tattenhall.







Richard Winterton

Drew Pritchard

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Featured

Drummond Shaw interviewed in 2008

Hindhead, Surrey UK - DRUMMOND Shaw of Drummonds Architectural is interviewed by Thornton Kay of Salvo in the back yard of his Hindhead, Su...