Art Deco collection from landmark Shrewsbury house set for town auction

A collection of sculpture, posters, paintings, ceramics, lighting and collectibles used to decorate Shrewsbury’s famous 1930s Art Deco house will be going under the hammer on Wednesday.

The collection, which runs to 85 lots, will be sold in Halls Fine Art’s 348-lot Modern and Contemporary Art and Design auction at the Battlefield saleroom in Shrewsbury.

The most highly lots are eight sculptures of dancing females by Austrian sculptor Jozeph Lorenzl (1892-1950) which are each valued from £100 to £2,000.

“The vendor used to own the Art Deco house in Oakfield Road, Copthorne, Shrewsbury and decided to decorate and furnish it in Art Deco style,” explained Alexander Clement, Halls Fine Art’s senior valuer. “It has become quite a landmark in the town.

“He sold the property some years ago and has kept the Art Deco collection until now. We are anticipating a lot of interest in the collection.”

Two of the more unusual lots from other vendors are limited edition prints by German artist Michael Moebius of British pop stars The Beatles and David Bowie blowing bubbles with bubble gum. Each of the prints is valued at £600 to £800.

Two signed etchings with acquatint by American artist Mel Bochner (1940-2025) titled ‘Enough Said’ and ‘I Forget’, are each valued at £2,000 – £3,000 while a 20th century advertising poster promoting for ‘Dungeness by The Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway, The World’s Smallest Public Railway’ by N. Cramer Roberts carries an estimate of £1,000 to £1,500

Works by English artists Damien Hirst and Mr. Controversial are also among the paintings.
Valued at £2,000 to £4,000, Hirst’s acrylic on paper, ‘Butterfly Spin’ joins three artworks by London-based Mr. Controversial – ‘Excusez-Moi’, ‘Passive Aggressive is My Love Language’ and ‘Meltdown’ – each valued at £2,000 to £3,000 in the auction.

Reportedly the UK’s richest living artist, Hirst, who was born in 1965, was one of the Young British Artists who dominated the art scene in the 1990s.

Mr. Controversial brings vintage imagery back to life with oil paint and relatable captions that tell comical, satirical and sometimes dark stories.

Other works include an oil painting of daffodils in a vase by French artist Francis Tailleux (1913-‘81) valued at up to £1,500 and untitled abstract etching and aquatint by Victor Pasmore (1908-‘98) from the Rothko Memorial Portfolio and ‘Autumn Oak’, an oil on board by Fred Cuming (1930-2022), each valued at £800 to £1,200.

Welsh artist Aneurin M. Jones (1930-2017) has two paintings on offer – ‘Welsh Farmers at a Stock Sale’ and ‘Farmers and Welsh Cob’ – each valued at £800 to £1,200.

The contemporary design section includes six lots of vintage Louis Vuitton bags and luggage valued at from £150 to £600.

Picture: Nude figure of a female dancer by Josef Lorenzl valued at up to £2,000.