This story has legs … Church table sells for £10,000

A GEORGIAN side table discovered in a church fetched £10,000 at auction in Wokingham last week.

The mahogany side table was found by auctioneers Martin & Pole in a church in Surrey in December after the parish decided to sort through a number of unwanted items.

Valuer Matthew Coles said: “Initially, the idea was to advise the parish on the value of items before being offered for sale to the congregation.

“This table stood out to me though. It had been put away in a corner of the church and virtually ignored. It was donated to the church in the 1940s, but it was clearly George III and the design suggested to me that it may well be Irish. We were delighted when the table was delivered to us for our June auction.”

The table attracted a lot of interest from the Irish furniture trade, with heated bidding taking place over the phone, internet and in the room at the auction on June 21.

The eventual winner was a trade buyer in the room.

Mr Coles said: “We always felt that the table had great potential. It had very little damage, good colour and well executed carving, but the final hammer price surpassed even our expectations.”

The sale follows hot on the heels of another big seller: a jade Bi-disc which fetched £10,500 in May.

Mr Coles added: “Last year was the most successful in Martin & Pole’s long history in auctioning antiques, but this year we have already sold more by value compared to this time last year.”