Bidders all wide awake for 'Royal' Bed...
14th April 2018
Lawrences’ 1900-lot Spring Fine Art auction series finished on April 13th and the final section comprised clocks, works of art, furniture and carpets.
A glimpse of the variety is shown by the prices achieved for four lots: a brass skeleton clock made £870; an early 19th Century Siena marble Grand Tour souvenir of the tomb of Cornelius Scipio, 24cm wide, made £1340; a German tapestry panel, possibly 17th Century, depicting King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, made £1090; and an Axminster runner, 210 x 100cm, made £1460.
More `conventional` furniture items also performed well: an Arts & Crafts embossed leather three-fold screen within a walnut frame, depicting a peacock within a fruit tree, was bid to £5000; and four Howard & Sons items – a settee, a tub chair, an armchair and a Bergere-style chair – made £6950. A Victorian Gothic oak half tester bed had the distinction of a Royal association. It was part of a suite made for Banchory House, near Aberdeen. In September 1859, Prince Albert delivered a speech in Aberdeen and spent the night in this bed at Banchory House. A brass plaque upon the bed and a copy of the page from Queen Victoria’s diary accompanied the lot and established its provenance beyond doubt. This was bid to £1700.
