Jingle Bells all the way to July auction

IT MIGHT be summer, but there’s a distinctly Christmassy feel at a Cotswolds auction house this week.

Staff can’t stop whistling or humming Jingle Bells – and it’s all to do with the one horse open sleigh in the saleroom.

The late 19th century continental sleigh is one of the more unusual lots going under the hammer at Moore Allen & Innocent’s selected antiques auction in Cirencester on Friday, July 8.

The sleigh features a single driver’s seat and two passenger seats in the back behind a cane work dashboard.

A bid of between of £1,000 to £2,000 should secure the lot, after which all the new owner has to do is wait for snow.

From sleighs to carriages, a pair of books from the royal coachmaker Maxwell Monson Ltd might appeal to transport buffs, heraldry fans, or collectors of royal memorabilia.

A sketch book features drawings of coats of arms that were painted onto the carriages, while a ledger details orders for harnesses and other equipment from Queen Victoria, and later by Edward VII and George V, placed with the firm between April 1838 and December 1912.

The two books carry an estimate of £300 to £500.

There’s a royal theme to the picture section of the auction, where a pair of portraits of Charles I and Henrietta Maria of France after the Flemish Baroque artist Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599 to 1641) carries an estimate of £30,000 to £50,000.

Elsewhere in the picture section, a portrait of Saint Mark by the Italian artist Guido Reni is expected to achieve £5,000 to £8,000, while a bid of £3,000 to £5,000 should secure a portrait of Maria Clementina Sobieska, wife of James Stuart, Jacobite pretender to the British throne, and mother of Bonnie Prince Charlie.

From Scottish aristocracy to gaelic artisans, a pair of Orkney chairs are one of the highlights of the furniture section.

The late 19th or early 20th century chairs were crafted in oak with seagrass seats.

And as you won’t find oak growing in Orkney, it is presumed that the wood was salvaged from shipwrecks.

Orkney chairs are uncommon enough, and its rare to find a matching pair, hence the £800 to £1,200 estimate.

Orkney may be famously treeless, but there was plenty of wood at Wiltshire’s Hannington Hall, where elm was felled to craft two plain refectory serving tables in the early 20th century.

A bid of £800 to £1,200 should secure the lot, while bids of £500 to £800 each are expected on two refectory tables dating from the 17th century: one in oak in the Elizabethan taste, the second in oak with bog oak and holly chequer-work.

There’s more local carpentry in the form of mid-20th century Cotswold School arts and crafts furniture: an oak wardrobe with nipped handles by Hugh Birkett (£800 to £1,200), and a single bedstead in walnut by Fred Gardiner (£300 to £500).

And arts and crafts pottery is represented with a small collection of wares by Compton Pottery in Surrey, including a sundial as a putti with a bowl and bronze gnomon, and a figure of an owl – the symbol, of course, of the antiques trade.

Both pieces carry an estimate of £500 to £800.

From home counties pottery to ceramics from the other side of the world, a collection of 18th century Chinese cloisonné wares includes a large bowl decorated with bats and flowers, a pair of scenters, and other flower vases.

Found in a local attic, the larger pieces command estimates around the £300 to £500 mark.

And for something bang up to date, there are more than 80 lots of gentlemen’s’ jewellery includes rings, cufflinks, and watches from brands like Rolex, Tag Heuer, Patek Phillippe, and Omega. Estimates range from between £100 to £150 for pairs of cufflinks, and £4,000 to £6,000 for the best of the watches: an 18ct rose gold Rolex Oyster perpetual day date superlative chronometer and bracelet wristwatch.

For a full auction catalogue, log on to mooreallen.co.uk