This week, Sworders Fine Art Auctioneers experienced one of its best attended auctions since the rise of internet bidding, thanks to a consignment of furniture and ornaments from local rock star, Sir Rod Stewart.
13/09/2018 FINE INTERIORS
This week, Sworders Fine Art Auctioneers experienced one of its best attended auctions since the rise of internet bidding, thanks to a consignment of furniture and ornaments from local rock star, Sir Rod Stewart.
The singer, who has a mansion in Sheering, near Harlow, was in need of a good old-fashioned clear out and approached local firm Sworders with the collection of items earlier in the year. The media went wild for the story and it didn’t take long for die-hard fans to hear about the sale.
Realising they could be in with a chance of owning some of the glitzy items belonging to the star, fans flocked to the Stansted Mountfitchet Auction Rooms to get in on the action. The 37 lots were certainly in-keeping with the star’s flamboyant style. People were queuing up for their turn to sit in his leopard print armchair! The chair received the highest number of pre-auction bids on record for the firm and eventually sold for a staggering £4,670 including premium.
As well as a jam-packed sale room throughout the day, the sale generated three times the number of online registered bidders for its kind. Most bidders came from the UK but there was also interest from the US, India, Greece, Singapore and Malaysia.
Among the 37 lots, which all sold well over estimate, were a pair of gilt bronze-mounted side tables, snapped up for £6,200, a pair of late 19th Century pier mirrors, which sold for almost double the guide price at £5,000, and a set of four gilt bronze two-branch wall lights, which went under the hammer at £2,800. A pair of Victorian leather armchairs were most popular, with the hammer coming down at £7,600.
Autographed auction catalogues were sold at the sale to raise money for local Children’s charity Tom’s Trust.
To view the full results of the sale, please click here.
A major highlight of our forthcoming 'DREAMS | A Unique Private Collection' sale on 9 July is a remarkable archive of letters and manuscripts by John Ruskin (1819–1900), the celebrated Victorian polymath. This unparalleled group – numbering in the hundreds – is believed to be the largest collection of Ruskin correspondence in private hands and spans a vast range of topics from art and architecture to politics, religion, and personal reflection.
2 July 2025
'The Scented Garden of Abdullah the Satirist of Shiraz' - also known as 'The Bagh-i-Muattar' - quickly caught the attention of our book specialists, when a copy bound in full vellum was brought in by a local client to our weekly valuation day.
2 July 2025
We are thrilled to launch The Glass Sale - a brand-new addition to our auction calendar! The inaugural sale will take place on Tuesday 28 October and will become a biannual fixture in our calendar going forward.
20 June 2025