A slow start to the year with entries trickling in improved with a rush of late lots just before the catalogue was printed for Strides in Chichester. Eventually over 900 lots was about the same size as their average number of auction items.

After a dearth of high furniture prices in December, this auction was led by an antique painted satinwood oval Pembroke table, which had been in store for a couple of years, selling for a mid estimate £3,200. From the same source, a fine mahogany secretaire chest of only 3 drawers made a double estimate at £1,600 – a good price for an excellent example of “brown furniture”.

An early 19th century mahogany oblong 4 tier whatnot had been cut in half to create a pair of 2 tier bedside tables. The auctioneers recommended a small cost to the vendor to re-instate the whatnot to its original form. The restorer’s job was carried out to perfection and instead of selling for an estimated £500, it made £900, for the sake of a £25 cabinet maker’s fee.

A Victorian mahogany library bookcase which was far too large for a waterside cottage in pretty Itchenor came to the saleroom with pessimistic hopes of £500-700; steady bidding pushed it up to £1,500.

A near pair of watercolours of a trout and a salmon by the unknown artist J Susini caught the eye of 2 antique dealers who outbid the art trade to buy them on low estimate at £900. From a different piscatorial source came a stuffed trout which had been caught on Lord Mountbatten’s estate Broadlands at Romsey in Hampshire, on the river Test in 1898. Weighing in at 12lbs 10ozs, this beauty was in a restored glazed case and sold to a Sussex collector for £500. From Newlyn, Cornwall, came a typical copper oval biscuit barrel with a repousse seabird on a rock and fishes which was expected to make £350; collectors homed in on it and one of 7 absentee bidders was successful at £425.

Two woodworking planes came from the family of a retired antique dealer/restorer. With the magical name of Norris stamped on them, they flew past their reserves of £200 and £250 to sell for £525 and £625.

A local collector decided to take advantage of the present high price of gold, to sell an 18ct gold link bracelet by Kutchinsky weighing 6ozs for £1,300.