Laidlaw Auctioneers to feature Hermes bag and jewellery

These items included a Hermes Kelly handbag and a Victorian pocket watch which fetched four-figure sums.

John Hunt’s The Ascent of Everest, bearing the signature of Sir Edmund Hillary, who famously summitted Everest in 1953 (Image: Laidlaw Auctioneers and Valuers)

The upcoming two-day auction will feature the customary collectors’ items, silver, and furniture.

Among the firm’s wide-ranging categories is the pictures section which the auction house is particularly proud of.

The auction will include Victorian genre paintings (Image: Laidlaw Auctioneers and Valuers)

It will exhibit a group of works by Welsh Romantic painter Colin Gard Allen, whose work often showed a fascinating fusion of beauty and visual severity of West Cumbria.

There will be fully realised works such as the portrayal of a glowing sunset and a quieter study of a solitary fisherman, along with a series of brisker sketches on display.

The auction has a considerable and diverse militaria section (Image: Laidlaw Auctioneers and Valuers)

Additionally, the auction will feature John Eaton Walker’s Blind Man’s Bluff, a substantial Victorian genre painting.

This is a depiction of a 17th-century aristocratic family and guests enjoying a parlour game in a baronial hall.

A depiction of a 17th-century aristocratic family and guests enjoying a parlour game in a baronial hall (Image: Laidlaw Auctioneers and Valuers)

The painting initially presents a cheery image, but a closer look reveals it is an allegory for aspects of love, its trials and tribulations, anticipation, and disappointment.

In light of the double meaning and its impressive scale, it is widely thought to be the artist’s masterpiece.

The auction house will offer works by Welsh Romantic painter Colin Gard Allen (Image: Laidlaw Auctioneers and Valuers)

Also of noteworthy mention, the auction’s book section will have high-profile autographs available.

There is a copy of John Hunt’s The Ascent of Everest proudly bearing the signature of Sir Edmund Hillary, who successfully reached the summit of Everest in 1953.

Fans of espionage fiction will be delighted to find signed copies of John Le Carre novels, including The Russia House.

The customary militaria section will make way for numerous diverse items.

While the elegant military dress uniforms such as the gilt braided scarlet tunics of the Guards are always a popular draw with collectors, more ordinary khaki and other clothing worn on the battlefield can also be quite valuable.

An example is a Second World War British Army camouflaged windproof smock which despite its simplicity, is associated with the Wartime SAS and is expected to reach a price between £500 and £1000.

Among the glitz and glamour of the monthly jewellery section is a sapphire and diamond dress ring, which will surely steal the show.

It includes a pale blue, cushion-cut two-carat sapphire encircled by terraces of round-cut diamonds set on fourteen-carat white gold.

Predicted to sell between £2000 and £4000, it is sure to entice a lot of attention.

The auction will be taking place on July 26 and 27 and will be on public view on July 25 and during the sale.

Bidding is open to all, with an option to participate both online and in person.

This monthly auction, like all those before it, promises a wide range of eclectic items that celebrate an array of interests, allowing everyone to partake and purchase something unique.