A PLATE believed to have been owned and used by TE Lawrence has sold for £1,100 at auction. The RAF mess plate, thought to belong to the man who would become known as Lawrence of Arabia, bears the insignia of the RAF, which Lawrence joined as an enlisted man after World War One under the pseudonym TE Shaw. Richard Bromell, of Charterhouse auctioneers, Sherborne, said: To find anything connected to Lawrence is incredibly rare as he led a modest life at Cloud’s Hill, his small country retreat near Wareham, Dorset. The pottery plate, measuring 24cm in diameter, bears the RAF insignia and was discovered in a Dorset cottage by Charterhouse auctioneers during a probate property clearance. It has an estimate of £500-£1,000.
A classic MG A Roadster was found under a pile of rubbish during a house clearance in Dorset A CLASSIC MG sports car which spent years buried under a huge pile of rubbish in a domestic garage will go under the hammer in April. The Iris Blue 1960 MG A Roadster is expected to fetch between £8,000 and £12,000 after being discovered by Charterhouse in Sherborne. Auctioneers discovered it in a property near Shaftesbury and it will go up for auction along with an album of photographs illustrating its restoration. “It was always my dream as a schoolboy to go around the countryside looking for classic and vintage cars which have been locked away for years” said Richard Bromell of Charterhouse.
AN Old Master drawing discovered on the wall of a Somerset bungalow has sold for £16,000. The artwork attributed to Giovanni Francesco Barbieri - known as Guercino (1591-1666) - was snapped up at auction by a French buyer It is now off to Paris following a two-day sale by auctioneers Charterhouse this month. Auctioneer Richard Bromell said: Bidding across all sections was frenetic despite the lockdown and a global pandemic. We initially thought the small Old Master drawing could sell for a thousand or two, but there was plenty of pre-sale interest with both online and telephone bidders. Towards the end of the bidding, it was a two-way battle between two French buyers and it eventually sold for £16,000 to a bidder in Paris.