Auctions to go on line for Princess Diana’s lace and a sculpture by Grayson Perry

Gypsy Queen Caravans in a Sussex Meadow by Cedric Morris (Image: Archant)

Lace from Princess Diana’s wedding shoes, a sculpture by Grayson Perry and pictures by the Bardfield Artists are all coming up for online auction by Sworders in Stansted.

The auction house says it is keen for people at home doing clear-outs to get in touch.

Coming up for sale is a sample of the lace used by designer Clive Shilton when making Diana’s footwear. It is expected to sell for around £100-£150.

Also about to be “going, going, gone” is a ceramic piece called Alien Baby - Rites of Passage, by Grayson Perry, expected to sell for up to £6,000.

The work was 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.

Up for sale are drawings of East Anglian village life by the Bardfield artist Edward Bawden (1903-1989). He was one of a group of artists who moved into the village of Great Bardfield in the 1930s and whose work won international fame. Among them, they designed post-war Britain.

These are two pen and ink studies created for use in The English Scene a diary and notebook published by textiles firm Morton Sundour Fabrics in 1955. Estimates are £1,500-£2,000.

Also, 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, this is another fine painting by the artist-plantsman. The dedication “To Phyllis from Cedric 1927” is to the vendor’s mother Phyllis Pitcairn Gage-Brown.

A jazz collection is to be auctioned. This comprises records, books, periodicals and related ephemera of the late Philip ‘Pip’ Piper of Cambridge.

He was a lifelong collector with an extraordinary knowledge of the early years of jazz.

A Sworders’ spokesman said: “Piper had an eye for quality and scarcity. His broad and eclectic holdings contain many rare and hard to find pieces.”

Chinese textiles, collected by a Victorian engineer who left Scotland in 1897 to work on the Chinese railway, William Orr Leith are on sale.

He became the engineer in chief of the project and later general manager of the Peking to Mukden Railway Line and died in 1948. The pieces are estimated at £1,500 to £2,500.

Clear outs can be lucrative says the auction house. “In 2015, decorative arts specialist John Black received a snapshot of just the underside of a Victorian octagonal ebonised table as it lay in storage in a barn. It was water damaged and not easily accessible. He said: “I had to jump over two fences, shuffle past donkeys and then squeeze into a damp stable to see it.”

But he knew immediately it was a rare centre table designed by architect Edward Godwin (1833-86) for Collinson and Lock. It later sold for £31,000.

Earlier this year, furniture specialist James Pickup found a very early piece of English furniture in barn in Diss, Norfolk. A family of mice had taken up residency. The 15th century elm and oak coffer later sold for £3,000.

For more details on these lots, contact: auctions@sworder.co.uk