I had the pleasure of attending one of the biggest to be seen in recent times when the contents of Sunlight Soap magnate Lord Leverhulme’s home at Thornton Manor, Wirral, were dispersed.

That sale over three days in June 2001 raised £9.6 million, still a record total for any UK country house sale. So, no bargains there, I’m afraid!

But oh for a return to the house sales of 20 years ago … it’s where we learned much of what we know and where we bought much of what we own.

Ah yes, I remember them well. Like the time we stood among a crowd of buyers in the pouring rain at the front door of a house stuffed with the treasures of generations of hoarders. The only person who kept himself dry was the auctioneer.

He had the presence of mind to remain under the eaves of the front porch while the rest of us stood in the rain.

We came home with the makings of pneumonia, a marvellous Staffordshire flatback figure called Flight into Egypt (Joseph leading an ass with Mary seated upon it cradling the infant Jesus) and a Victorian glass wasp trap. (They look like a clear glass chianti bottle with feet and no base. You fill a rim around the inside with beer which attracts the wasps. They fly in through the hole in the base but, because they cannot find the way out, they drown exhausted in the drink. Cruel, but highly effective).

Then there was the time we drove miles to a sale, simply on the strength of a newspaper advert which listed “dinner service” among the things to be sold.

When we were married, my parents gave us six plates that had been given to them as a wedding present from their parents. What if the dinner service in the sale matched our plates?

We arrived … late … to find the assembled buyers already besieging the auctioneer with bids for the fine furniture, silver and paintings on offer.

However, the china, glass, bric-a-brac and general detritus that makes house sales so much fun was laid out in meandering lines on the extensive lawns at the front of the house.

Amazingly, the dinner service was the same as our own and thankfully, it was to be sold where it lay at the end of the day.

By the time the proceedings reached the two tea chests crammed with our plate-matching dinner service, the serious buyers of the day had departed. We bid, almost casually, and several dozen pieces were ours – and remain so – for very little outlay.

Then there was the time we heard about a sale on the premises that included a grandfather (sorry, longcase) clock bearing the name of a maker who, centuries earlier, had lived in our home town.

We had to make the clock our own. Sadly, though, the money – or the lack of it was going to be a problem.

Hours of agonising later, we agreed that our only option was “to go liquid” as the money men would have it.

With less than two weeks to go before the sale, we called friends, contacted friendly dealers and placed ads in the local paper to sell bits from our beloved collection that we had convinced ourselves we could live without.

It all backfired, of course. Come the sale and bidding for the clock spiralled way past what not just we could afford but, with the exception of two or three people who just kept on outbidding each other, and every other potential purchaser there too.

It transpired that the reason for the house sale was a disagreement between a brother and his sisters who had inherited the property and its contents. No one could agree on an amicable share-out of the spoils, so an auctioneer was called in.

If they wanted something from the house, then they would have to bid for it. In their case, of course, money was not a problem. The cash raised from the sale was being split between them as beneficiaries, so whatever they spent, they would subsequently get a percentage back!

We vowed that next time, we would buy first, then go liquid to pay what we owed!

Picture shows: The cover of Sotheby’s two-volume catalogue for the sale of The Leverhulme Collection – still the most valuable house contents sale in the UK

Chirk Castle sale – a rare treat for collectors

Today, house contents sales “to be conducted on the premises” are so expensive to organise that usually only the largest of properties feature in them. Usually, it is far more cost-effective to ship the contents of smaller, less important homes back to a saleroom for cataloguing and eventual sale.

However, dealers and collectors in the area enjoyed a rare treat on Monday, June 21, when Christie’s staged a classic country house sale at Chirk Castle, near Wrexham (pictured above). Click here for top ten prices

More than 600 lots of works of art, furniture, paintings, ceramics, books and silver as well as antique household effects were sold from the private collection of the Myddelton family who have lived at Chirk, now a National Trust property, since 1595.

The sale followed the decision by Guy Myddelton to move his family out of the private wing of the castle because it has become too busy an environment to bring up his young children. “We will not be able to take all our belongings with us to our new home, hence we have instructed Christie’s to stage this sale,” he said.

Highlights of the sale included a George III mahogany serving-table (estimate in the region of £80,000) and a set of four George III mahogany hall chairs attributed to Mayhew & Ince (estimate in the region of £20,000).

Dating to the period when A.W.N. Pugin was involved in the remodelling of Chirk were a pair of early Victorian cast-iron and brass andirons, from a design attributed to Pugin, probably produced by John Hardman & Co., Birmingham (estimate in the region of £10,000) and a pair of Victorian oak benches, also probably designed by Pugin (estimate in the region of £8,000).

Among books were four volumes entitled a collection of Etruscan, Greek and Roman antiquities from the Cabinet of the Hon. William Hamilton, Naples (1766-67) (estimate: £20,000-30,000), while paintings ranged from Old Masters to a small selection of portraits.

Unique and appealing antique household objects included collections of falconry tackle, hunting horns, Yeomanry swords, tack, 18th century leather fire buckets with family initials and Georgian men’s costume.

antiques@chris-proudlove.co.uk

International fine art auctioneers Christie’s will sell more than 800 lots in a marquee at Gyrn Castle, Llanasa, North Wales, the country house home of prominent 19th century Liverpool ship owner Sir Edward Bates.

Click here to see a slideshow of the four properties and some of the objects up for sale

The sale, on July 17 and 18, follows the recent death of his descendant Sir Geoffrey Bates, the fifth baronet. The house and its 367-acre estate are alson on the market, either as a whole or up to 10 lots. Estate agents Strutt & Parker have issued a £3.5 million guide price.

Gyrn has the lion’s share of the sale with around 450 lots, but property from two other historic Welsh houses will also be sold: Nantlys Hall, a Victorian mansion at Tremeirchion, which is also on the market, and Mostyn Hall, which overlooks the Dee above Mostyn village, Flintshire.

Other objects in the sale are from the attics of Capesthorne Hall, the South Cheshire home of the Bromley-Davenport family who in October last year sold Greek vases and antiquities in a £1.5 million sale at Christie’s in London.

Most controversially, the sale will see the dispersal of The Gyrn Apostles, an unusual and rare group of late 15th or early 16th century carved wooden figures, each of which stands about two feet high.

Christ and seven of the figures, either Welsh or English, have been at Gyrn since at least 1831 and were in place when the property was acquired by Sir Edward in 1856. They are estimated at £15,000-25,000.

Four further Netherlandish examples, depicting respectively Matthew, Peter, James and Bartholomew, will be sold individually with estimates ranging from £2,000-6,000, potentially upsetting those who believe the group should be kept together.

The Gyrn collection reflects the opulence enjoyed by the successful Victorian ship-owner, politician and successive generations of the wealthy family. It includes both early oak and good Georgian mahogany; porcelain; fine oil paintings; silver; sporting trophies and collectors’ items. They will be sold throughout the first of the two-day sale.

Nantlys was built in the early 1870s for a branch of the great Welsh antiquarian family of Pennant. About 75 lots include, notably a strong group of family silver such as a Victorian soup tureen by John Samuel Hunt, which is estimated at £3,000-5,000, as is an imposing 18th-century English School portrait of Peter Pennant (c1664-1736) who was the High Sheriff of Merionethshire in 1674, Flintshire in 1675 and Caernarvonshire in 1676.

Nantlys furniture includes a set of 14 George III mahogany dining chairs estimated at £15,000-20,000, while a fine mid-Victorian gilt wood table topped with specimen marble is estimated at £15,000-25,000.

Among around 100 lots in the sale are from the attic rooms at Mostyn Hall. A late 17th century Dutch old master oil painting of a frozen river landscape is estimated at £3,000-4,000 and an early George III mahogany writing table is estimated at £5,000-8,000.

A rhinoceros trophy estimated at £500-1,000 is among the more unusual items in the sale.

Among the treasures from Capesthorne Hall are paintings collected in the 18th century by members of the Bromley-Davenport family making the Grand Tour; Regency furniture and arms and armour including an early 17th century English Pikeman’s armour, circa 1640 estimated at £3,000-3,500.

The sale will be on view at Gyrn Castle next Friday and Saturday, July 14 and 15, from 10am to 6pm, and on Sunday 16 July from 10am to 4pm. A catalogue of the contents, priced £16 at the door, £20 by post, admits two to the view and subsequent sale