AA Auctions Ltd

Pot Lid:   'CAMPAILLA & SONS, LONDON'

Description:  A large and very impressive "SPAKS" WONDERFUL hair preparation lid from this famous address in London which features a very detailed picture of a young warrior slaying a dragon (with two snakes to the foreground too). Superb quality print. Very desirable and rarely seen for sale. 

** Invaluable help and support has been provided to these pot lid listings by the authors of the fabulous book: 'Historical Guide to Advertising Pot Lids' by Houghton, Layden & Taylor - Thoroughly recommended at just £70 (softback) **

Era:  c1880-1890's

Diameter:    93mm

Condition (please see detailed photo's):   Good/very good   Just has a pretty insignificant small (5mm x 12mm) shallow chip/flake on the back rim and apart from 4 very minor fleabite flakes on the back rim edge (which are hardly worth mentioning) is otherwise excellent.

Grade:   8.0         Estimate:   £500-600+       Reserve:     £500

Pot Lid:   'BAYLEY & CO, LONDON'

Description:  Another fabulous pictorial London lid, this time featuring a superb pictorial of a civet cat. Fancy 'barley twist' type border. Quite possibly an unrecorded variant having two rear lugs for securing to base and likely made for export (featuring 'London, England' at bottom of print)

The dried secretions from a gland on the rear end of a civet cat were used (and still are) in the perfumery business. This North American mammal was in fact not a cat but from the raccoon family. 

Era:  c1880-1900's

Diameter:    77mm

Condition (please see detailed photo's):  Excellent/Mint  Superb undamaged condition with just the usual subtle light glaze crazing/glaze-lines 

Grade:   9.8          Estimate:   £300-500       Reserve:     N/R 

Pot Lid:   'J.R.KIRK, LOW HARROGATE'

Description:  A very desirable and classic rectangular pot lid featuring a fabulous picture of a Victorian bristle tooth brush and from a famous spa town in North Yorkshire. Superb quality print. Scarce

Era:  c1890-1900's

Dimensions:    93 mm long and 60mm wide

Condition (please see detailed photo's):  Fair   Just has a medium (5mm x 19mm) shallow sliver off the side edge (that looks to have previously been filled/repaired), a medium (6mm x 13mm) chunk off the back rim and a smallish (5mm) chip on the back rim edge, but most if not all hidden from view on display and is otherwise excellent with just some light rust stain on the back rim. 

Grade :  5.9        Estimate:   £100-120+     Reserve:     N/R

Pot Lid:   'DELICATELY SCENTED, RUSSIAN BEARS GREASE'

Description:  A striking early bears grease lid featuring a dark standing bear carrying a sash. Lovely smaller 3" size. Attractive fancy border. Detailed print. Always very popular due to the sheer size of the bear (and the fact that it possibly bears more of a resemblance to a tail-less rat than a bear)

Era:  c1850-70's

Diameter:  74mm 

Condition (please see detailed photo's):  Fair/Good   Just a small (4mm x 9mm) chip at 3 o'clock on the face (easily repairable) and is otherwise mint. 

Grade :  6.0        Estimate:   £80-100      Reserve:     N/R

Pot Lid:   'STEPHENS' (GLOUCESTER)

Description:  A very appealing large factory pictorial 'Potted Fish and Meats' pot lid from this Gloucestershire city. Single line border. Detailed print (so much so that you can read the wording STEPHENS VINEGAR WORKS, GLOUCESTER' on the front of the building in the foreground. A very imposing and scarce large lid.

Era:  c1880-1900's

Diameter:  93mm 

Condition (please see detailed photo's):  Restoration   Looks to have had a thumbnail sized chip (at around 7 o'clock on the face edge) that has been repaired (and the letters 'I' & 'S' retouched) and possibly some chips/chunks on the rear rim repaired too. All to a good standard and apart from some minor small light scratches on the face is otherwise very good. (nb the small diagonal line near the 'N' of Stephens' is in the print) 

Grade :  Ungraded    Estimate:   £60-80+      Reserve:     N/R

Pot Lid:    'H.GILBERTSON & SONS LTD'

Description:  This lid features a great pictorial of the fabulous twin-spired Cologne Cathedral (although only one spire is evident on the lid). detailed print. An impressive and popular lid not so often seen without some sort of damage.

Gilbertson's was taken over by 'Ayrton & Saunders' of Liverpool in 1904 

Era:  c1890's -1904

Pot Lid:    'WRIGHT'S'

Description:  This large and imposing lid really is a work of art with great use of contrasting dark and light shading to accentuate the effect. The image so evocative of the Victorian era with a man shaving in the mirror (and the shaving pot on the table having the 'WRIGHT'S name on it). Excellent print quality. 

Pot Lid:     'LORIMER & CO, LONDON & NEW YORK'

Description:  A very impressive large (4.25") lid featuring a mosque and palm trees from this well known London company. Lorimer's arm and globe trade mark below main picture. Appealing design and highly detailed print. 

Era:  c1880-90's

Diameter:   102mm 

Condition (please see detailed photo's):    Excellent  Superb condition with just a small (3mm x 4mm) and very insignificant flake on the inside rim on the very bottom (totally hidden when on display of course) and is otherwise mint

Grade :  9.3        Estimate:   £80-100+     Reserve:     N/R

Pot Lid:   'DR ZIEMER'S'

Description:  A scarce larger variant of this popular lid featuring Princess Alexandra. This time a 3.5" example with her pictured facing the left. Most of the original gold band remaining. Not so often seen in undamaged condition. 

Era:  c1880-1890's

Diameter:    92mm

Condition (please see detailed photo's):  Excellent   Superb condition with just some of the usual light wear to the gold band in places, some very light and totally insignificant fine crazing on the back and a miniscule (1mm) light glaze rub on the outer edge of the rim (barely visible and hardly worth mentioning) and is otherwise mint

Grade :   9.6        Estimate:   £80-100       Reserve:     N/R

Pot Lid:      'GENUINE RUSSIAN BEARS GREASE'

Description:  An appealing 'two bruins' bears grease lid with a large fancy border and featuring a standing bear with another behind (with its tongue out) lying beside. Superb quality print. Delicately made.

Era:  c1870-80's

Diameter:   75mm 

Condition (please see detailed photo's):   Excellent  Superb condition with just some very small subtle marks in the glaze in places (and what could be a very light thin scratch on the outer edge which in no way detracts) and is otherwise mint 

Grade :  9.5        Estimate:   £100-150     Reserve:     N/R

Pot Lid:   'CIRCASSIAN CREAM'

Description:  A rare large 'Circassian Cream' pot lid featuring a portrait picture of the character 'Diana Vernow' from Walter Scott's novel 'Rob Roy' (see engraving). Detailed print. Fancy border 

Era:  c1860-1870's

Diameter:    92mm

Condition (please see detailed photo's):  Fair   Has a large (8mm x 55mm) chunk off the back rim and two other smaller ones (both around 4mm x 25mm), some wear and light rust crazing around a part of the outside rim and a small (2mm x 5mm) shallow chip and a fleabite flake also on the underside of the outside rim. Looks OK on display though.

Grade :   4.0        Estimate:   £150-200       Reserve:     N/R

Pot Lid:     'LORIMER & CO, ISLINGTON'

Description:  An attractive mosque pictorial from this well known London company. Lorimer's arm and globe trade mark within a circle below right. Exceptional print for one of these, you'll struggle to find a better all round example  

Era:  c1880-90's

Diameter:   66mm 

Condition (please see detailed photo's):  Excellent  Superb condition with just a very shallow tiny (<2mm) flake on the back rim (hardly woerth mentioning) and would otherwise have been 10/10

Grade :  9.7        Estimate:   £30-50      Reserve:     N/R

Pot Lid:      'POTTED TONGUE'

Description:   A quite spectacular and impressively large (3.5") early pictorial lid featuring a dining table with an oval platter, fork, condiment set on the top and the potted tongue all ready to eat. Fabulous piece of advertising and quite possibly one of the UK's finest pictorials. Exquisitely detailed. Early flat lid. Very few recorded in this large size.  

Era:   c1850-1870's

Diameter:    88mm 

Condition (please see detailed photo's):   Excellent   Superb condition with just the shallowest of small (2mm x 3mm) and totally insignificant flakes on the back rim (barely visible and hardly worth mentioning) and a miniscule pinhead flaebite on the inside back edge that is once again nigh on impossible to spot and neither of these doing anything at all to detract when on display. 

Grade :   9.5        Estimate:   £300-500+     Reserve:     N/R

Pot Lid:   'A.B.CORTIS, WORTHING'

Description:  A scarce small cold cream lid from this West Sussex seaside town. Great quality print and attractive layout

Era:  c1880-1900's

Diameter:    63mm

Condition (please see detailed photo's):  Mint  Superb undamaged mint condition

Grade :    9.9       Estimate:   £30-50     Reserve:     N/R

Pot Lid:   'PRICE & CO, LATE PRICE & GOSNELL'

Description:  A scarce and desirable lid depicting Princess Alexandra with full veil. Unusual in that it's without a beaded border (see page 371 of the 'Historical Guide to Black & White Pot Lids' where both of these variants have a beaded border) Single line border with gold band on the outside. 

Era:  c1880-1890's

Diameter:    87mm

Condition (please see detailed photo's):  Repaired  Has had a professional restoration job done to a very high standard indeed. Looks to have had the gold band applied and because of the sheer quality of repair work it's nigh on impossible to work out the extent

Grade :    Ungraded   Estimate:   £200-300     Reserve:     N/R