Chorley’s forthcoming sale on Thursday, May 16 includes a large number of lots relating to Gloucestershire: the Cotswolds, the Forest of Dean and the Severn Vale. This is an unmissable opportunity to buy a slice of county history.
Whether it is interesting people, the landscape or local traditions, and whether it is a love of books, ceramics or pictures, there is something to appeal to everyone.
Stroud-born Laurie Lee, author of Cider with Rosie, is well known worldwide. A number of pictures from his collection are to be offered in this sale. The group is led by Lot 250, a typical study of a man riding a horse by the well known artist Elizabeth Frink which should achieve £4,000-6,000.
Lot 108, part of a library of Gloucestershire books, contains 20 lithographic views of Stroud circa 1838. This gives a window onto early Victorian Stroud and is sure to generate good local interest; the estimate is £100-150.
Lot 180 ‘The 5th Glo’ster Gazette, a Chronicle Serious and Humorous of the Battalion while serving with the Expeditionary Force, 1915-1918’ will be of interest to military historians and collectors. A poignant and eclectic collection of articles, it was written by men of the Gloucester Regiment who served on the Western Front during the Great War. It provides a fascinating look at life in the trenches and the humour of British soldiers in the face of adversity. The contrast of cartoons and irreverent poems with obituaries and casualty lists makes this an intensely emotional record made all the more astonishing for being published on the front line. Estimate £150-200.
On instructions received from a local institution a large number of legal volumes are to be offered for sale. Many of these are in attractive leather bindings and would look handsome on library bookshelves. Certain of these are of huge historic value; Lot 70 is a George II calf-bound volume containing Acts of Parliament of 1741-1742. Volumes of Acts are a huge resource to the historian and this asks £180-220; there are several other volumes of Acts in the sale, up to the reign of Edward V.
With the Three Choirs festival approaching what better time to acquire a copy of the Reverend D Lysons ‘History of the Three Choirs of Gloucester, Worcester and Hereford’, a first edition of 1812, it is offered as Lot 125 together with ‘The History and Antiquities of Gloucester’ by Thomas Rudge and carries an affordable £40-60 estimate.
A 19th Century view of The Passage House, Arlingham, Lot 260, shows the inn with the River Severn in the foreground, complete with barges and boats. Now a popular restaurant ‘The Old Passage Inn’ it enjoys views across the river to Newnham on Severn and the Forest of Dean. This naïve painting has the name of the licensee, Caroline Ryer, visible above the door. Estimate £600-800.
Among the ceramics is large collection of armorial and souvenir wares relating to the city and cathedral of Gloucester. Lot 454 includes three W H Goss ‘Gloucester Jugs’ bearing various armorials relating to the county and diocese of Gloucester, estimate £30-40
Perhaps the best known eccentric of the county was the notoriously tight fisted Jemmy Wood ‘The Gloucester Miser’. He was described as the richest commoner in His Majesty’s dominions having amassed a fortune of £900,000. He was reputed to walk everywhere to save the cost of a carriage and to have travelled from Tewkesbury to Gloucester in the back of a hearse in the space usually occupied for a coffin. His fame was widespread and it is believed that he was the inspiration for Charles Dickens’ well known character, Ebenezer Scrooge. Lot 64 is an interesting group of ephemera relating to Wood. It includes Gloucester Old Bank banknotes, prints of Wood whose unusual profile is unmistakable and a money box marked ‘James Wood’, estimate £300-500.
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Viewing Days:
May 14, 9am-5pm; May 15, 10am-4pm; May 16, 8.30-10.30am
Chorley’s, Prinknash Abbey Park, GL4 8EX, tel: 01452 344499, www.simonchorley.com
