XIV — Sale — Prices
XIV Sale Prices
Ancient embroideries so seldom come into the salerooms that it is rarely an opportunity occurs for obtaining market prices, therefore Lady Wolseley’s sale on July 12, 1906, must be accepted as a standard. Immense prices are asked at the antique shops, the dealers apparently basing their prices on this sale by auction and doubling them. I have visited every shop in the trade in search of prices for this book before procuring the auctioneer’s catalogue, and was aghast at the terrific sums asked for oftentimes indifferent specimens in comparison to what was paid in the auction-room. During the past year anything from £15 15s. to £40 has been paid at Christie’s for specimens of varying degrees of perfection of work and condition. The latter state is even of greater importance than the first, as no matter how good the work originally, if discoloured and frayed, prices go down and down. Nearly all the finest specimens of the Stump-work period are marred by the tarnishing of the gold and silver threads. Instead of these being a glory and a great enhancement to the embroidery, they prove a great disfigurement, and thereby cause a considerable reduction in value.
The earlier petit point pictures, having little or no bullion in their execution (and when cared for and not exposed to too much sunlight), have kept their condition very well, and now are quite the favourite kind for collection. It speaks much for the quality of the silks used and the dyes of nearly three hundred years ago that the fugitive greens and blues and delicate roses in these little works of art, as in the superb tapestries of the same date, should be as fine as when made, whereas to-day’s colours are as fleeting as the glories of the rainbow.
The following are the principal prices in Lady Wolseley’s sale:
| £ | s. | d. | |
| A small bag, red and gold brocade | 2 | 15 | 0 |
| A small bag or purse | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| A fine bead book-cover | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Same, trimmed with silver lace (Harris) | 6 | 16 | 0 |
| A pair of embroidered shoes (Harris) | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| A small pocket-book, silk embroidery on silver ground | 8 | 17 | 6 |
| A pair of Stuart shoes | 9 | 19 | 6 |
| A stumpwork picture, a most curious globe, showing Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, 1648 (S. G. Fenton) | 24 | 0 | 0 |
| A double book of Psalms, embroidered binding with Tudor rose | 23 | 10 | 0 |
| A petit point picture, 12½ × 9½ | 11 | 11 | 0 |
| A small picture, partly sketched and partly worked | 4 | 14 | 6 |
| A Stuart stump picture, 18 × 15½ | 18 | 18 | 0 |
| A Stuart stump picture, King under canopy, 17½ × 14 | 14 | 14 | 6 |
| A Stuart bullion picture, vase, in tortoiseshell frame, 23 × 18 | 8 | 8 | 0 |
| Same, with Herodias’s daughter and John the Baptist | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| A portrait of Henry, Prince of Wales, in flat-stitch on rose satin | 21 | 0 | 0 |
| Another on satin, “Bathsheba,” spangled, 17 × 13 | 6 | 16 | 0 |
| Another on satin, birds on gold and silver, 13 × 13 (Harris) | 13 | 13 | 6 |
| A bead picture, 15 × 11 | 11 | 11 | 0 |
| A stump and bead picture, 12 × 11 | 12 | 1 | 6 |
| A small book-cover, 14 × 8 | 13 | 12 | 0 |
| A Stuart stump picture, figures and silver fountain, tortoiseshell frame, 22 × 16 | 15 | 15 | 0 |
| A stump picture, lady with coral necklace, 18 × 12 | 23 | 10 | 0 |
| A stump picture, lady under arch with a black swan, 20 × 16 (Stoner) | 34 | 0 | 0 |
| A stump picture, King Charles as Ahasuerus with Haman and Mordecai, and pearl-embroidered carpet, 23 × 17 | 28 | 0 | 0 |
| A stump picture, lady under a canopy, large pearls, 13 × 19, (Stoner) | 34 | 0 | 0 |
| A Stuart Petit Point picture, Abraham and Hagar | 16 | 16 | 0 |
| A Stuart petit point picture, “Judgment of Paris,” 24 × 17 | 25 | 0 | 0 |
| A Stuart petit point picture, King Solomon and Queen of Sheba | 18 | 18 | 0 |
| A beadwork picture, lady and gentleman, lion and unicorn, 21 × 17 | 12 | 12 | 6 |
| An embroidered picture, “Peter denying Christ,” 24 × 17 (S. G. Fenton) | 9 | 19 | 6 |
| A petit point picture, lake with boats and figures, 15 × 12 (Harris) | 14 | 14 | 6 |
| A large stump picture, with horse and rider and figures of four seasons | 30 | 10 | 0 |
| A stumpwork picture, four figures, castle and birds and flowers (S. G. Fenton) | 33 | 0 | 0 |
| A picture sketched on white satin, not worked | 4 | 15 | 0 |
| A Stuart picture on canvas | 9 | 19 | 6 |
| A fine Stuart jewel-casket, numerous secret drawers, covered in needlework (S. G. Fenton) | 47 | 5 | 0 |
| A Stuart box, covered with bullion-work (S. G. Fenton) | 12 | 12 | 0 |
| A Stuart box, with embroidery and pearls (Spero) | 16 | 16 | 0 |
| A Stuart box, coloured bullion, 10 × 6 | 9 | 9 | 0 |
| An embroidered box, with portrait on lid (S. G. Fenton) | 53 | 11 | 0 |
| A Stuart mirror, covered with stump embroidery, representing Charles I. and his Queen (illustrated), (Rosthron) | 102 | 18 | 0 |
| Another mirror, with painted and embroidered figures (Harris) | 34 | 0 | 0 |
| A Charles I. mirror in old lace and gold frame, with borders in embroidery, with portrait, castle, and floral decoration | 40 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 yds. 13 inches long, 12 inches deep, Cornice in Petit Point, Christie’s, July, 1908 (Harris) | 204 | 15 | 0 |