Auctioneers want locally made antiques

The Made in Shropshire auction takes place at Halls' Battlefield rooms later this year and auctioneers are keen to find items which hail from the county.

From Coalport porcelain to Minsterley dressers, auctioneers are hoping the lots will attract a great deal of interest.

The sale, which will take place on November 22, follows the success of a similar auction held in 2014.

Already entered in to the sale are more than 100 lots of Caughley porcelain, which represents the second part of an important collection assembled by Caughley Society president, the Rev Maurice Wright and his wife, Janet, who live near Shrewsbury.

The first part sold for £72,000 in April, with the top price of £3,700 going to a mask-head jug dated 1790 which was printed in blue on both sides with a 'Severn Trow' passing underneath the Shropshire Ironbridge with an angler in the foreground.

The auction could also include Coalport and other ceramics made in the county, Coalbrookdale ironwork and bronze, tiles from Maw and Co and Craven Dunnill and Merrythought teddy bears.

Caroline Dennard, Halls’ European ceramics and militaria specialist, who is organising the auction, said she would love to see rare coins made by the Shrewsbury Mint, Shropshire specific inscribed silver and jewellery, sporting trophies and medals and items related to wartime poet Wilfred Owen, Clive of India and Lord Hill.

Other items on the wanted list are oak furniture, including Shropshire and Minsterley style dressers, militaria related to the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry regiment and medals awarded to Shropshire servicemen and servicewomen.

Paintings by Shropshire artists including John Alford, Shropshire hunting prints and maps, clocks by the likes of William Hay of Shrewsbury and J. B. Joyce and Co, Whitchurch, items related to the Sentinel Waggon Works, Shrewsbury, stoneware flaggons from the county’s micro breweries and old enamel signs for Shropshire companies can also be entered.

Books, postcards and photograph albums of early views of the county will also be welcomed.

“Following the success and popularity of our previous ‘Made in Shropshire’ sales, we are hoping our November auction will generate a similar response from vendors and buyers alike,” said Miss Dennard. “We are looking for entries of anything that was made in Shropshire and is now considered to be antique.

“I look forward to seeing what comes forward in the coming weeks because the scope is huge and the people of Shropshire and surrounding counties never cease to amaze me with the antiques they have in their homes.”

Anyone interested in entering items for the auction is asked to contact Miss Dennard at Halls on 01743 450700.