Bidders paid a record £80,700 for two lots of light fittings salvaged from the RMS Olympic, the Titanic’s sister ship, during a strong week of auctions in the North East.
The fittings, removed from the RMS Olympic, were sold at Anderson & Garland’s recent auctions.
They were salvaged when the ship was dismantled for scrap in the late 1930s.
Part of the Olympic lights lot (Image: Anderson & Garland)
A pair of ormolu and cut-glass ceiling lights sold for £37,700, while a brass three-branch fitting fetched £43,000 to set what is believed to be a saleroom record for RMS Olympic lights.
Fred Wyrley-Birch, managing director at Anderson & Garland, said: "These were among our most successful Country House & Fine Interiors and Fine Art auctions in a few years, and it was wonderful to see such strong demand from both the trade and private buyers.
"Achieving a saleroom record for lights from RMS Olympic was the highlight, but the strength of the week ran right through the sales, with traditional pictures and mid-century design both performing far beyond expectations.
The Olympic in New York (Image: Anderson & Garland)
"It is a real vote of confidence in the market, and we are delighted for our vendors."
Both RMS Olympic lots beat the auction house’s previous records.
The brass fitting beat the £23,400 paid for two three-branch lights in 2023, while the ormolu and cut-glass pair almost doubled the £19,500 fetched for a similar pair in 2024.
Other highlights included a wood and gesso figure of John the Baptist, attributed to Spanish sculptor Juan Martínez Montañés (1568–1649), which sold for £4,550.
First Class staircase on the Olympic (Image: Anderson & Garland)
Mid-century furniture also outperformed estimates in the Modern Art & Design sale.
A pair of FD130 teak-framed armchairs by Peter Hvidt and Orla Mølgaard-Nielsen for France & Son sold for £1,950, beating their £600–£1,000 estimate.
Several traditional works also beat expectations in the Fine Art auction.
The First Class lounge on the Olympic (Image: Anderson & Garland)
Edward Hersey’s oil painting South Country Mill sold for £5,460 against an estimate of £1,000–£1,500.
Frederick Richard Lee’s A Distant View of Dunbar Castle also sold for £5,460, against an estimate of £2,000–£3,000.
William Albert Clark’s painting of Ursula Raglan, a cow, sold for £1,690 against an estimate of £200–£400.
The telephone bidder said Ursula was "particularly well endowed."
Livestock portraits became popular in the mid-18th century as gentleman breeders commissioned paintings of prize cattle, sheep, pigs and oxen.
The portraits reflected new breeding techniques that produced larger animals to feed the UK’s expanding cities.
Artists exaggerated features linked to high meat or milk yields, even though the animals were not as large as depicted.
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Demand for the portraits prompted many London sign painters to switch careers after a 1763 law limited shop-sign sizes.
Printmaking advances such as lithography let the images appear in journals, be sold as souvenirs or promote animals at stud before photography arrived.
He said: "We are delighted for our vendors."
All prices listed include fees.
Full results and auction highlights are available at andersonandgarland.com.