When the team at Chippenham Auction Rooms were asked to clear a house in Westbury last month, they weren’t expecting anything out of the ordinary.
That all changed when a clock from the property sold at their December auction for a very unexpected £12,000.
The clock – a rare 10-inch dial grandfather clock dating from 1690-1710 – was bought by a dealer.
Also from the house was a box of Egyptian artefacts, which sold for £1,300, and a range of silver and ceramics. All in all, items from the property fetched £25,000 – around 25 times more than from the average house clearance in Wiltshire.
Principal auctioneer Richard Edmonds said, “This was an excellent result for what looked like a very run-of-the-mill house clearance. But once we got to work, we realised that the gentleman who’d lived in this property in Westbury had been collecting some fine antiques since the 1950s and 60s. He clearly had a very good eye for buying interesting items.”
According to Richard, most house clearances discover items worth around £1,000 at auction.
He added, “Part of the reason these items sold well is that we’re seeing increasing interest in what’s known in the trade as ‘brown furniture’ – older items of furniture made with darker wood than one tends to see today. A few years ago, this type of furniture was very unfashionable, but buyers are clearly re-assessing the attractiveness of these pieces, which is good news for auction houses like ours.”
The items from the Westbury house, including the clock, were auctioned at Chippenham Auction Rooms on Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd December.
For more information on the auction, please contact The Chippenham Auction Rooms on 01249 444544 or visit www.chippenham auctionrooms.co.uk .
