South Yorkshire Times, November 11th 1944
Contents Of “Two Trees”
High Prices at Wombwell Sale
The contents of “Two Trees,” Hemingfield Road, Wombwell, former residence of Miss Dorothy Elliott, late Secretary of Wombwell Main Colliery, and County Magistrate, was sold by auction this week, the sale occupying two days, Tuesday, and Wednesday. The sale took place at “The Hut,” Wombwell Main, erected by Miss Elliot and sold some months ago to the Barnsley Co-operative society. The sale was conducted by Messrs. C. E. Smith and Son, of Barnsley “by order of the administrator for Miss Dorothy Elliott.”
At the opening of the sale on Tuesday the attendance was so large that it was difficult to find accommodation for all in the hall. In the main, high prices were fetched and bidding was so keen that dealers with an eye to profit had very little chance. An example of the high prices was £175 paid for an electric refrigerator which probably could have been bought new for less than half that sum, had a new one been obtainable. On the opening day the auctioneer put up kitchen and scullery utensils, books, glassware, china and bric-a-brac, pictures and etchings, silver and silver plate, ivories, albums of gramophone records, and furniture and fittings from the dining room and lounge
On Wednesday there were sold bedroom carpets, curtains, electric fittings and garden tools and outside effects, the last mentioned at “Two Trees.” The sale on the first day realised at a rough computation about £2,750.
From the kitchen and scullery there were sold an electric cooker £35, and a fire-resisting safe £37 10s. Books sold included a library of classics £11 and a Caxton’s complete set of Dickens’s works £14. For six glass fruit dishes £9 5s was paid, while a cut glass powder bowl with silver top realised £5 5s. Among the china and bric-a-brac sold were part of a Royal Doulton tea and coffee set £11, three pairs of Doulton china models £8, a Lalique glass ornament of three pairs of love birds £8, a set of three La Nives pot pourri everlasting flowers £11, a Royal Copenhagen porcelain model of a horse £13, a “Chang” Royal Doulton bowl £14, a Crown Devon painted musical jug £15, Benares elephant bell £11 10s. and a Spode coffee set £11.
Price of Pictures
The highest price paid for a picture was £35 bid for an oil painting landscape by B.W. Leader, R.A. A pair of water colours “Playing by the Pond,” and “Hay Time,” attributed to W. Birkett Foster, made £21. The coloured mezzotint, “Macdonald Boys,” by Elizabeth Gulland after Raeburn, fetched £7 and five small original etchings Puppy Studies by Cecil Aldin, realised £12.
Most of the pictures were bird and animal studies. Most notable item among the silver plate was a set of table plate comprising 70 pieces. For this £27 was paid. The silver was sold by weight, prices ranging as low as 11s to as high as 43s per ounce. Georgian and Queen Anne silver tea sets made about £75 and £67 respectively, while a small card tray with crest of lion and crown made £16. For a mahogany cabinet of 122 souvenir silver spoons with handles of enamelled coats of arms of British cities and towns £70 was bid. Other items sold under this head were a Georgian cream jug (1824) £11 3s., and a silver cigarette box initialled “D.E.” £11. At 17s an ounce a William IV tray with crest would make £171 14s. Highest price paid for some very choice ivory figures was £19 for a 12 inches high figure, “The Gardener.” A similar model of a Japanese “Geisha Girl” realised £17. An ivory “Indian Goddess” described by the auctioneer as one of the finest pieces of its kind in the sale brought a bid of £13.
Chief items from the dining room and lounge were an oak refectory table £50, six carved oak dining chairs £70, a heavily carved oak sideboard £55, a small oak kneehole writing desk £15, an oak panelled chest £26, a figured mahogany cabinet £25, a glass fronted bookcase £42, Chesterfield suite £135, mahogany coffee table £41, cabinet gramophone £24, inlaid mahogany folding card table £61, all-mains wireless set £56.
In the case of items of furniture in the controlled list, lots were cast among would-be purchasers. Silver and silver plate fetched a total of about £630 while furniture made a little over £1000. Picture sales totalled just over £200 and Chin a and bric-a-brac some £230.
“Grotesque Figures”
Fewer people were present when the sale was reopened on Wednesday, but prices were again high. Simple garden ornaments, such as gnomes, mad-hatters, and cupids at birdbaths which fetched £8 10s each were not inappropriately listed as “grotesque figures.” Six new deck chairs were bought for £22 10s.
Wednesday’s proceedings opened at “The Hut” with the sale of odd lots. If there were any bargains, they were in these “lucky packets” of tinned goods, powders, bottled fruits, patent fruits and other sundries. These lots went for £75 15s. Then followed the sale of bedroom furniture and such bids as £180 for a lady’s wardrobe, soon swelled the total. Sales totalling over £1000 were made in little over an hour. About this time the auctioneer, Mr. G. Smith, broke off to mention that President Roosevelt had been re-elected; an announcement which brought a hearty cheer from the hall.
Other items of bedroom furniture which went to make up the total of £840 made under that head were antique dower chest with panelled front, top and ends £36, mahogany dressing table £30 10s., mahogany chest of drawers £26, mahogany couch £15, walnut corner cupboard £41. Many of the items of furniture were drawn out of the hat at controlled prices after the new tenant of “Two Trees,” Mr. Lindsay Parkinson and Co. Ltd., had been given first option.
A few of the items sold were white linen embroidered and hem-stretched tablecloth £15, linen Richelieu afternoon tea cloth £7, embroidered afternoon tea cloths £6 and £13, silk painted damask super-cloths with napkins to match £10 and £12, a set of 12 lace-edge embroidered linen napkins £8, six green Turkish bath towels £19, nine hem-stitched linen sheets £21, two green silk brocade tablecloths with napkins to match from £17 to £20, a pair of green down quilts with bedspreads to match in green brocade £22 10s, three all-wool blankets bound in silk £16 and two brown quilts £10 10s.
The remaining lots were sold after a short interval at “Two Trees.” The rooms of the house were so tightly packed with people that it was quite impossible to move about, and the auctioneer sold all the carpets, curtains and electrical fittings while standing in the hall. A green Wilton carpet made £38 and a fitted green Axminster containing approximately 25 square yards £80, and £30 was bid for a pair of Lalique electric bowls in the lounge. The 16 yards square Axminster carpet in the dining room realised £38 and the Axminster carpet on the staircase £49. The Axminster carpet in No. 1 bedroom commanded a bid of £80 and that in No. 2 bedroom £40. The £15 paid for a pair of long tapestry curtains and fittings in the staircase was a fair example of the prices given.
were garden tools and outside effects. A bird bath with the figure “Autumn” made £8 10s and the 6ft. by 4ft. garden hut £29. The sale of 300 yards of six-feet high netting around the dog runs at £35 represented probably one of the best bargains of the day The greenhouse measuring 29ft. by 15ft., said to have cost £800, was sold for £170., but it had to be dismantled and removed. The wooden summerhouse with tiled roof went to a bid of £61.
Proceeds of the sale on the second day totalled about £2,500, bringing the total for the two days’ sales to about £5,250. “Two Trees” had previously been sold by auction for £3,975 and the sale of farm stock realised about £6,000. “The Hut” and contents together with the “Hostel” and contents made approximately another £6,000 so that the sales combined have realised just over £21,000.
Mr. G. Smith of Messrs. C. E. Smith and Son. stated after the sale that it had been one of the most remarkable auctions conducted in that district for generations.