STANSTED MOUNTFITCHET.- Confidence remains high in the art and antiques market despite the current break to the auction calendar, say leading East Anglian firm Sworders. “Results at recent sales have underlined a robust demand for good quality and unusual art, antiques and collectables”, comments chairman Guy Schooling. “I have no doubt that, even in these undeniably difficult times, that is set to continue. Some great consignments are arriving and buyers remain confident and eager to transact, whenever that might be possible.”

The first sales of the year at the Stansted Mountfitchet saleroom provided many memorable lots - with more to come when trading resumes.

January’s sale of 20th Century Design featured items from the homes and offices of Sir Colin St John and MJ Long, architects of the British Library - a pair of Alvar Aalto Beehive' pendant lamps, believed to have hung in the couple’s office, sold at £5000 - while the many quirky lots in our February Out of the Ordinary sale included a rare book documenting A Tryal of Witches at the Busy St Edmunds assizes in 1664 sold for £5400.

The early March Fine Interiors sale was one of the best ever. Heading some very fine traditional pictures was a textbook Dutch shipping scene by Golden Age painter Hendrik van Minderhout (1632-96) sold at £37,000 and Evening Star at Full Steam, a well-known oil by Terence Cuneo (1907-96) sold over top estimate at £65,000. The Cuneo, depicting the last steam locomotive ever built for British Railways was commissioned by James Haworth & Company for use in the company’s 1964 calendar and later became one the most successful fine art prints ever published by the company. It was offered for sale together with a picture of the vendor’s father with the artist.

A relic from the Heroic Age of Polar exploration, a stuffed and mounted Adélie penguin collected by scientists during the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition of 1910-1913, took £10,500. It had been given to the vendor's great-grandmother in 1913 by expedition doctor Edward Leicester Atkinson. The buyer was Canterbury Museum in Christchurch, New Zealand who will add the penguin to their diverse collection of Antarctic memorabilia and photographs. Bidding at the auction on the phone, the museum also secured a lot of four watercolours by Apsley George Benet Cherry-Garrard (1886-1959), the youngest member of the Terra Nova crew, at £1600.

Following guidance from the Prime Minister, auction houses up and down the country have been closed to the public since March 23. However, despite current restrictions, Sworder’s specialists are still welcoming photographs of potential consignments by email. “Although understandably we are unable to conduct person-to-person valuations at this time, and both our auction room and our London and Hertford offices are closed, there is a lot our team of specialist valuers can do based on a few decent photographs taken on a smartphone,” says Guy. All online valuations are conducted free of charge.

Here is a sneak preview of some of the exciting consignments coming up in future sales.

Upcoming highlights include:

Gypsy Queen Caravans in a Sussex Meadow by Cedric Morris (1889-1982). Estimate £15,000-20,000.
In the wake of Sworders’ new auction record of £204,160 for Morris, another fine painting by the artist-plantsman is coming up for sale. The dedication in the bottom right hand corner of the painting ‘to Phyllis from Cedric 1927’ is to the vendor’s mother Phyllis Pitcairn Gage-Brown.

A collection of Chinese textiles including an embroidered kesi red and black robe. Estimate £1500-2500.
These nine lots have been consigned by descendants of a Victorian engineer who left Scotland in 1897 to work on the Chinese government railway. William Orr Leitch (1871-1948) became the Engineer in Chief of the project and later General Manager of the Peking to Mukden Railway Line.

Drawings of East Anglian village life by Edward Bawden (1903-1989). Estimate £1500-2000.
Two pen and ink studies created by one of the region’s best known artists for use in ‘The English Scene’, a diary and notebook published by textiles firm Morton Sundour Fabrics in 1955.

The Jazz collection - records, books, periodicals and related ephemera - of the late Philip ‘Pip’ Piper of Cambridge.
A lifelong collector with an extraordinary knowledge of the early years of Jazz, Piper had an eye for quality and scarcity. His broad and eclectic holdings contain many rare and hard to find pieces.

A wall hanging by Peter Collingwood (1922-2008). Estimate £1000-2000.
A 1970s 3-D ‘microgauze’ hanging by the British craftsman at the forefront of weaving for 50 years.

Alien Baby - Rites of Passage, a ceramic sculpture by Grayson Perry (b.1960). Estimate £4000-6000.
A unique work created by the Turner Prize winning artist in response to the making of a four-part documentary for Channel 4. The sculpture was given by the artist to a couple whose sons were cared for by the neonatal unit at Chelmsford’s Broomfield Hospital.

A souvenir of Princess Diana’s wedding shoes. Estimate £100-150.
A sample of the lace used by celebrity accessories designer Clive Shilton when making Diana’s footwear.