Candlesticks from farm clear-out sell for £129k

The candlesticks were found in a Warwickshire farmhouse after the owner decided to declutter

A small pair of porcelain candlesticks which were found when a farmhouse owner was decluttering have sold for £129,000 at auction.

They turned up among a several items from the home near Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, Cotswold-based Kinghams Auctioneers said.

Experts found they dated from about 1745-1750 and were made by the French factory Vincennes.

Measuring 10.6cm (four inches) high, they were sold as separate lots with one going to an American buyer for £91,000 and the other for £37,700 to a buyer in the UK.

Experts discovered the porcelain candlesticks were made by the French factory Vincennes

Made of soft-paste porcelain, one of the candlesticks did have some damage and repairs, the auctioneers said.

Examples of such Vincennes porcelain were highly desired by connoisseurs and academics, Kinghams said.

The paintings on them showed a scene of Moorish and European traders in a coastal encampment with ships in the distance on one of them.

The other depicted a landscape of ruins with a courting shepherd and shepherdess, a figure on horseback and an attendant overlooking a coastal view of ships.