Part 18 (2/2)

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 tarnis.h.i.+ng 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 pet.i.t 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 princ.i.p.al 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 pet.i.t point picture, 12-1/2 9-1/2 11 11 0

A small picture, partly sketched and partly worked 4 14 6

A Stuart stump picture, 18 15-1/2 18 18 0

A Stuart stump picture, King under canopy, 17-1/2 14 14 14 6

A Stuart bullion picture, vase, in tortoisesh.e.l.l frame, 23 18 8 8 0

Same, with Herodias's daughter and John the Baptist 5 5 0

<script>