News & Articles

As 2025 comes to a close, we at Bearnes Hampton and Littlewood have been reflecting on the fantastic year, filled with the sale and valuation of thousands of interesting, unique and valuable pieces of history. I asked the Heads of Departments to tell us about their favourite lots this year.

Our Ceramics department had great success in January, when a pair of yellow famille-rose Chinese bowls sold for £94,500. In November, after the discovery of several boxes of pottery in someone’s attic, we held an extra auction dedicated to twentieth-century studio pottery, which included a range of Lucie Rie and Hans Coper works. This auction was one of two white-glove sales we had in November. Nic's favourite lot from this year, however, was the Meissen figure of Count Von Bruhl's Tailor, because of "the story of a pride that was pricked." Said story is that, in the eighteenth century, Count Bruhl's - renowned for his elegance and style - tailor recognised the effect that his styling of the Count was having in the courts, demanded to be seated next to the King at Court banquets. The Meissen figure, created by Johann-Joachim Kandler, is a satirical figure of the tailor on a goat. The Count supposedly commissioned the statue to be seated by the King, as the tailor had requested. Our 19th century version made £5,500 at auction in October.

Piers, who joined us as the Head of the Picture Department from Bonham's in the summer, noted the strengths of both modern and traditional paintings. Highlights include the sale of a 1974 Patrick Heron painting, ‘Mini January IX’, for £13,000 and a portrait of Deborah Flory attributed to Bartholomew Dandridge, which sold for £6,500.

Head of Jewellery, Tracey Scott, picked the George III memento mori ring as her favourite piece. The ring, engraved with ‘RR ob 30 Jan 1724’ on the inside, featured black enamelling and a carved skeleton on the outside. Tracey said, ‘The craftsmanship and enamelling were exceptional… the condition still amazing for a ring that was just over 300 years old’. Although Tracey 'found it hard to put a value on it', the ring garnered a lot of interest and sold for £8,500.

The Silver Department has similarly had success throughout the year, with a white-glove sale in November. Highlights include a Victorian four-piece Irish silver tea and coffee set, and a George V silver and enamel mounted wooden photograph frame, which - despite the estimate being £100-150 - sold for £1,900.

Our Book Department, which holds twice yearly sales in everything from antiquarian books to maps, also had a successful year. A 1927 first edition of Tarka the Otter, inscribed by the author Henry Williamson, sold for £1,600 in October. In the same sale, a beautiful and rare (outside of institutions) copy of Thomas Sebillet's Contramour (On the Dangers of Love), sold for £2,100. Earlier this year, a rare and complete deck on 17th century narrative playing cards, decorated with the 'Popish Plot', sold for £2,800. We also offered a beautiful early edition of Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, which did not sell. 2026 marks the 300th anniversary of its publication, and we hope to be able to offer this book at auction again.

In July, a rare George III Coade Stone figure of a Vestal Virgin, by Eleanor Coade, sold at £4,000, a great achievement for the Works of Art Department. Head of department, Cristian Beadman, said 'This lot ticked all the boxes for me. Coadestone has been a strong interest of mine for many years and I see so little of it. This particular model is a very beautiful example.' This figure came to us through our online valuation form - which you can find here. The vendor uploaded a photograph of the item, and Cristian says, 'I instantly recognised the piece for what it was.' After telling the client what the item was and providing a valuation, it went to auction and the piece sold well. Cristian goes on to explain, ' To me this typifies how the system should work. A client comes to a firm they trust, the firm holds the right knowledge base to recognise and list an item properly, and the ultimate selling price is pleasing all round.'.

In the same department, a patinated bronze equestrian group of King Louis XIV of France, after François Girardon, sold for £4,000 in April. From the second half of the 19th century, this statue is a smaller model of the over life-size statue of Louis XIV that stood in the Place Louis le Grand in Paris. It was destroyed during the French Revolution, but there is a small scale model of the statue in the Musee Louvre. Of this piece, Cristian said it 'took quite some identification… the bronze had been in one Northern Irish family for generations and they had always believed it to represent King William III.' 

Finally, Brian Goodison-Blanks, Head of Sporting, Collectors and Maritime, has said it was 'another year of some wonderfully interesting and historical pieces.' Highlights in Brian's department include Ronnie Krays gun licence and a set of Crimean war medals presented by Queen Victoria herself. For Brian, however, 'finding a section of a topaz set tiara in a box of costume jewellery that sold for £7,000 is quite memorable.' In the Maritime sale in the summer, a rare 1852 Franklin Expedition button sold for £6,000. Brian said this is 'such a unique piece of history', and it is one of only three known to exist.

These items are just the tip of the iceberg - each year we see thousands of interesting and unique items come through our doors, passing from old owners to new. To find out more about what we sell, visit our department pages. To submit an item for valuation, see the online webform here.