Nine pieces of rare Coalport ‘Animal Service’ porcelain sold for more than £4,000, smashing pre-sale estimates at a leading Shropshire fine art auction house on Wednesday.

The seven dessert wares, a plate and one coffee can and saucer were in high demand at Shrewsbury-based Halls Fine Art’s successful fine art, antiques and jewellery auction which attracted both private and trade buyers. The auction total was £180,000, including buyer’s premium.

The Coalport pieces were consigned by a private collector in Newport, Shropshire. Top price of £900 went to John Rose Coalport oval dessert serving dish, circa 1800-’05, painted with a circular panel of ‘The Fallow Deer’.

A John Rose Coalport dessert ice pail or fruit cooler painted with a circular panel of a Striped Hyena and a dessert sauce tureen and cover sold for £650 each while a shell shaped dessert side dish painted with a circular ‘The Ban Dog’ panel made £600.

“Coalport’s ‘Animal Service’ remains something of a mystery to collectors, as it’s not known who commissioned it, how large the service was and who decorated it,” said Caroline Dennard, Halls Fine Art’s ceramics specialist.

“The animal painting, from which this service takes its title, is inspired by Thomas Bewick’s ‘A History of Quadrupeds’, published in 1800. The scope of potential inspiration was enormous, with more than 200 different woodcut engravings serving as sources for the decoration.

“Given that each piece features a single animal, it’s likely that additional pieces will continue to be found as time passes. One of the lots in the auction was previously sold in London, but other pieces appear missing from modern attempts to list known examples, which may account for the excellent prices achieved.

“The ‘Animal Service’ offering at Halls Fine Art was the most significant in terms of quantity to enter the market in recent years.”

Whilst the principal decorator is not definitively known, there is speculation that it might have been Charles Muss (1779-1824), son of Italian artist, Beneficio Muss.

He exhibited several works at the Royal Academy, including Dunkeld Castle in 1800 and produced an enamelled plaque with a named and dated view of the Coalport China Works in 1804.

Coalport was prominent in the highest prices achieved in the ceramics section. Highlights were £2,200 for a Minton dessert service painted by James Edward Dean (active 1882-1926) with still lives of fruit, £1,000 for an early 20th century Coalport dessert service painted with flowers by Howard and Chivers, £850 for a Coalport dessert service, circa 1855, painted by John Randall with assorted birds and £750 for an English porcelain tray, possibly Coalport, decorated with fruit.

Other leading prices were £440 for a pair of Coalport Coalbrookdale vases, circa 1820-25 and £400 for  Coalport Chicago Exhibition agate and jewelled tea canister and cover, circa 1893.

Three samplers dating from the 18^th and 19^th centuries sold for more than £8,000 for a Worcestershire collector at a Shrewsbury auction last week.

Art Deco Wedgwood Fairyland lustre and Royal Crown Derby ceramics also grabbed the headlines at Halls Fine Art’s successful pictures, ceramics and collectables auction.

The samplers included a George III needlework example from around 1810 by Helen Ingles, which raced away from its pre-sale estimate to sell for £4,400.

The sampler depicted a country house or cottage with fenced garden surrounded by flowering plants, peacocks and other fauna beneath a floral garland.

Two other samplers sold for £2,000 each. A George II example by Esther Bix. was worked with a spray of roses, wildflowers and foliage surrounded by cruciform patches.

The other George III sampler was made in around 1805 by 14-year-old Maria Thorneycroft and featured three panels with flowering plants and birds, a ship flanked by six marines celebrating Lord Nelson and a country house surrounded by trees, figures and animals.

There was further success for a framed 17th century stumpwork – raised embroidery – fragment, depicting King Charles I standing in a landscape with flora and fauna, a villa and a cottage in the background, also which sold for £2,300.

“The samplers sold well because they were early and quite rare with interesting subjects,” said auctioneer Alexander Clement. “The Worcestershire vendor will be delighted with the prices we achieved.”

Alexander’s colleague Caroline Dennard, ceramics specialist, was similarly pleased with results in her section.

She saw an Art Deco Wedgwood Fairyland lustre punch bowl and vase, both designed by Daisy Makeig-Jones in the 1920s, sell for £2,800 and £2,700, respectively. Both pieces were consigned by a Rutland collector.

A collection of Royal Crown Derby “statement pieces” from a late Shrewsbury collector sold for £4,500. The collection included a pair of large Royal Crown Derby ‘Arum Lily’ Imari vases, dated 2008, at £1,200, a late 20^th century Imari coffee service at £650 and pairs of ‘Passiflora’ Imari vases and Imari elephants at £500 each.

Other ceramic successes included a pair of 1941 Royal Worcester reticulated vases painted with still lives fruit by Edward Townsend which sold for £1,050 and a scarce John and William Ridgway pail and cover in the ‘Pembroke Hall, Cambridge’ pattern, circa 1815-20, at £800.

A ‘Travel’ part dinner and tea service by Eric Ravilious (1903-‘42) for Wedgwood sold for £750, a scarce set of 11 Irish Belleek ‘Greek’ dessert plates from 1891-1926 made £600, an impressive 1894 Royal Worcester blush ivory vase and cover by Edward Raby made £550 and an 1885 moon flask by Christopher Dresser for Linthorpe Art Pottery found a buyer at £380.

Top prices in the paintings section were £650 for an Italian landscape by an artist in the manner of Jan Frans van Bloemen (1662-1749), £480 and £420 for oils by contemporary artist Adrian Rigby of a peregrine falcon and tawny owl, respectively and £400 for a watercolour by George Arthur Fripp (1813-‘96) of the view from Llanelltyd looking along the Mawddach valley in Mid Wales.

Elsewhere in the auction, the second part of a large  pen collection owned by Shropshire collector sold for £1,000.

A Shropshire couple’s large collection of more than 250 pieces by contemporary ceramicist Lorna Bailey sold for £6,500, double the pre-sale estimate, at Shropshire’s leading fine art auction house yesterday (Wednesday).

The collection, which included Bailey’s whimsical cat models and ‘grotesque’ models of birds, sold in 40 lots in Halls Fine Art’s 612-lot pictures, ceramics, collectables and modern design auction.

Top price went to ‘Lorna’s Jazz Band’, a set of five cat figures, which made £250, as all the Lorna Bailey lots found buyers.

Stoke-on-Trent potter Bailey’s colour palette is often compared to that of Clarice Cliff’s, who similarly favoured bold and vibrant designs.

Caroline Dennard, Halls Fine Art’s ceramics specialist, said: “We had a mixture of trade and private collectors bidding and achieved really healthy prices which shows that there is demand for this type of model. The vendors are delighted with the result.

“The auction also demonstrated that novelty and good quality art pottery is still commercial.”

More traditional tea and coffee services also sold well. Top prices included £850 for a Ridgway (Cauldon Place) ‘Savoy’ bone china tea service with 43 pieces and £650 for a Minton’s part coffee service, inspired by Christopher Dresser, together with a mid-20^th century Wedgwood part coffee and tea service.

A Staffordshire mocha ware mug, circa 1800 and two mid-19th century nursery or children’s mugs also found a new home for £650.

Halls Fine Art’s reputation for being the home of Coalport auctions was underlined as an early 20th century blue batwing service and an assembled group of teawares with the same pattern sold for £650 and £550, respectively.

A 20th century Wedgwood and Barlaston ‘Queen’s Ware’ blue and white embossed tea and coffee service and a Clarice Cliff for Wilkinson Pottery Fantasque vase, ‘Umbrellas and Rain’, sold well at £500 each and four 19th century British art pottery grotesque spoon warmers made £400.

A rare Minton’s lustre cat night-light or pastille burner, believed to have been a protype, found a buyer for £320, while a late 17th or early 18th century Italian maiolica wet drug jar, Montelupo, which was used as a prop by Canadian mural artist Tom Luzny, made £400.

Highlights of the pictures section were a watercolour by William John Wainwright (1855-1931) titled ‘A Troubadour’ and a Rob Hefferan oil on canvas titled ‘Relaxation’ which sold for £550 apiece.

A hand painted sculpture titled ‘Lapwing’ by Guy Taplin (b.1939) and an Olivier Mourgue Djinn sofa for Airborne made £480 apiece. The Djinn seating range was the first furniture to use urethane foam upholstery over tubular steel frames and the model sold was deemed to be so futuristic that it was used by Stanley Kubrick in his 1968 movie ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’

One of the surprises of the day was a mint collection of 91 DeAgostini Zippo lighters, all in their original boxes with display case, stands and hardback binders, which sold for £700 to a German buyer.

An unusual 19th century brass timepiece by Alexander Smart, London, with its original key and locking device, raced away to sell for £600 for a Newtown seller, a 1960 Rolleiflex 3.5F camera, model 2, with its original leather case, box, papers and attachments, made £550 for an Aberystwyth seller and a Clementi & Company eight-keyed cocuswood flute, from between 1802-‘21, hit the right note at £420.

Samplers sold well. A 17th or early 18th century English ‘stumpwork’ embroidered panel depicting the Old Testament story of Abraham banishing Hagar and Ishmael made £550 and an 1820 needlework sampler by Sarah Greene, decorated with a Baptist verse, sold for £500.

Alexander Clement, Halls Fine Art’s senior general valuer, Asian art and watch specialist, said: “I’m really heartened by the level of interest in the ceramics right across the board which is great credit to the cataloguing of Caroline Dennard.

“The complete collection of DeAgostini Zippo lighters also sold well and I was pleased to see the Rolleiflex camera sell for £550 because it was in really good condition with the original box, papers and leather harness.”

Halls Fine Art’s next pictures, ceramics, collectables and modern design auction is on September 18.