A specialist garden sculpture and decoration auction, both antique and contemporary, totalled over £1.6m in Billingshurst at the end of May.
Summers Place Auctions, in Stane Street, associated with Sotheby’s, bills itself as the world’s leading auctioneers in garden statuary and fossil decoration.
Auctioneer James Rylands, director and co-founder, said: “Despite reported doom and gloom about the state of European and American markets, we saw strong bidding from European as well as US clients.
“There was definitely a premium on the older and rarer lots which should prove a sound investment in contrast to the instability of the financial markets.
“We also had the added benefit of our new state of the art 5000sq ft gallery, enabling the display of smaller, more intricate auction items, as well as the landscaped walled gardens being a particularly beautiful setting for the auction pieces in the spring.”
A Travertine Marble Venus by the acclaimed sculptress Helaine Blumenfeld sold for £109,250, and a monumental rose quartz fire sculpture by John Van Hage sold for £63,650, both to UK buyers.
Meanwhile a USA buyer purchased a rare set of twelve impressive stone lidded urns from Witley Court for £43,250.
For more information visit www.summersplaceauctions.com or call 01403 331331.