Outselling much of the sort of furniture its owner could have worked on, an 18th century carpenter’s oak tool chest on stand was among the pleasant surprises for vendors at the opening sale of the year at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood (21% buyer’s premium).
Decorated to the drawers and stand with applied carved flowerheads and paterae, the 2ft 9in (79cm wide) chest had a fitted interior below the hinged lid, iron handles to the sides and bore a paper label: London 17__. Bought of James Buttall, Ironmonger and Brazier at the Gridiron near Hungerford Market in the Strand.
Estimated at £300-500, it sold at £3300 to the London trade at the January 22-24 sale at Exeter.