As recent and upcoming sales and results at Halls Fine Art have shown, business is booming. With a larger than ever monthly collective antique and art sale in June (1000 lots over two days with excellent prices achieved in each department) another sale of such calibre taking shape for early July along with the June 19^th  Silver, Jewellery and Watches Auction... and the July 17^th Summer Fine Art Auction... Hall’s services are certainly in demand in Shrewsbury!

Lot 898, Collective Auction, 5th & 6th June

Highlights of the June 5^th and 6^th Collective Auction include £1,600 achieved for a small English Arts & Crafts copper-clad oak bookcase (lot 898). Another, perhaps less conventional treasure discovered in the same private Shropshire house was a rather remarkable collection of unopened tobacco and cigarettes. The never to be sold stock of a long-closed mid-20^th century tobacconist included hundreds of tins of tobacco, packets of cigarettes and boxes of cigars, the vast majority sealed and unopened, together with dozens of unsmoked tobacco pipes and related effects. These packets preserved perfectly as time capsules provide a rare glimpse into the last century, in often brightly coloured, eye catching branding they are decorative items and pieces of advertising history in their own right. From the more familiar brands of ‘Lucky Strike’ and ‘Benson & Hedges’ to some less well-known names such as ‘Babies Bottom Brand’, the collection was saved for the nation, initially set aside for a bonfire before the potential value was revealed to the owners. So far, fetching £2,800 with more to feature in our July 3^rd collective auction, this is a wonderful example of how value can be unlocked from perhaps unlikely sources through the experience and expertise of our valuers, often to the surprise of our clients.

Yet another treasure from the same property set to feature in our upcoming July 17^th summer fine art and antique sale is a wonderfully rare piece of early vernacular oak, a 17^th century carved oak panel in the form of God’s Providence House in Chester. Dated 1652, this piece was carved during the construction of the house as it stands today, the name being a homage to an earlier property that stood on the same land beforehand. In the years 1647-8 a deadly plague swept through Chester, taking lives without discrimination as it crept silently through the desperate streets of a city in crisis. The inhabitants of the original building are believed to have been the only ones spared across a considerable distance, for reasons unexplainable to the lucky survivors, except for the intervention of god. Estimated at £2,000-£3,000, this piece captures the imagination and is a haunting relic of a long-past period of our history, and will be sold alongside other interesting early pieces in the July 17^th sale.

Coming soon in our Summer Fine Art Auction, 17th July

For more information, contact Joseph Trinder
General Valuer

Email: joseph@hallsgb.com
Phone: 01743 450 700