STAR LOTS ...

WITH TIM WEEKS

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ANOTHER busy month under the hot Wiltshire sunshine has seen so many highlights that it is difficult to know where to begin. So, just how I start all our auctions at Wessex Auction Rooms, I will start with Lot 1!

On June 14, we started in fine form with a stunning Clarice Cliff Bizarre Fantasque hand-painted vase in the Summerhouse pattern. The vase had a ribbed neck painted in orange and beautiful and very typical Clarice landscape to sides. Clarice Cliff remains one of the 'magic names' at auction and it is always a pleasure to put such pieces under the hammer. The base of the vase was marked with a printed mark, and the piece measured in at 20cm in height.

I personally collected this vase from a house in Bath among a collection of all sorts which included stamps, coins, paintings and sporting programmes, however it was always the Clarice vase that I had my eye on, although even I was amazed by its selling price of £2,640, proof that decorative arts is and always will be appreciated by collectors.