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#BishopMiller #OakAntiques #MedievalCarving #AngelCorbels #Raphael #Misericord #ElizabethI #CourtCupboard #ApplebyCastle #SimoniniCollection #PeriodOak #EarlyEnglishOak #MedievalAuction #HammerPrice #AntiqueCollecting
Bishop & Miller held a 92-lot auction on 29 October in Stowmarket, Suffolk, billed as the final sale of The Simonini Collection—a three-decade assemblage of period oak antiques consigned by a husband-and-wife dealership with over 30 years’ experience in early English oak, country furniture, medieval sculpture, and metalware based in the Lowther Valley near Askham, Cumbria.
Top results saw strong buyer premiums across medieval, Tudor, and Renaissance categories:
- Medieval English oak angel corbels (one holding a shield, the other a staff identified as the Archangel Raphael, patron of travellers and healers) sold for £17,000 against an estimate of £4,000–6,000. The pair stands 25.4cm high with outspread wings.
- Late medieval misericord (carved from a single oak piece, depicting Christ the Gardener with Mary Magdalen, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Holy Spirit as a dove, and symbolic figures of an apple-picker and an ox) realized £14,000 (est. £8,000–12,000).
- Elizabeth I three-tier oak ‘buffet’/court cupboard from Appleby Castle, Cumbria, far exceeded its £1,000–1,500 estimate, knocking down at £8,000. Used to display plate and serve at court, it features angled gryphon supports, acorn pendants, and a frieze drawer.
- Anglo-Norman oak column/sarcophagus supports (c. 1300–1350), carved as recumbent half-lion, half-man beasts in chainmail coifs with upturned moustaches and traces of original polychrome, sold for £3,600 (est. £3,000–4,000). Their heads closely resemble those on the Romanesque church of St Mary and St David at Kilpeck, Herefordshire.
- 16th-century Italian bronze Medici lion (seated, paw raised, 16cm wide) sold for £1,500 against an estimate of £200–300.
The sale marked the conclusion of The Simonini Collection and highlighted continued robust demand for authenticated, documented medieval and Tudor woodwork and metalwork within the specialist antiques market.
Georgina Wroe, deputy editor of Antique Collecting, is also a journalist, author, and broadcaster whose career spans national newspapers, magazines, and BBC Radio. She has written for The Times, the Mail on Sunday, GQ, Esquire, and Marie Claire, and spent six years as a journalist in Moscow. Her debut novel, Slaphead, won a WH Smith Fresh Talent Award, and she previously served as editor of Antique Collecting.
