The auction room was busy for our Modern Living & Design sale on Friday 23 October 2026, with plenty of customers coming in to bid in person. The sale brought together mid-century and contemporary furniture, lighting, ceramics and decorative pieces, celebrating bold design, iconic makers and individual style. From Ercol and G-Plan to Troika and Whitefriars, there was something for collectors and design enthusiasts alike and a few pieces carried details worth a closer look.

Here's how the sale unfolded.

Desk, Shelf and Mantel: Small Decorative Objects

Small objects drew keen interest from the room. The Jaeger-Le-Coultre Atmos bracket clock, with its gilt brass case and glazed top and sides, realised £700, while the pair of John Clappison Muramic plaques for Hornsea made £300. The bronze Girl in the Wind found a new home at £340 and the Ronzan cheetah sold for £200.

Furniture with Pedigree

Lucian Ercolani's 'Giraffe Model 363' bookcase room divider, in light elm and beech, reached £950, the highest price in this group. Beneath it, the Ercol 'Artisan' light oak dresser. The G-Plan 'Brasilia' teak sideboard each fetched £420 and the Austinsuite teak headboard, bedsides and mirrored dressing table achieved £380. Teak, elm and oak in clean mid-century lines continue to find buyers who want furniture that works as hard as it looks.

Statement Pieces

What makes a room memorable? Often it is one oversized, slightly unexpected piece. The leather rhino footstool made £420, and the gilt metal palm tree standard lamp, in the manner of Maison Jansen, went on to make £300. The pair of pink metal flamingos and Gillian Ross Kelsey's 'Riverbank' each found a new home at £130.

Take a Seat

Seating spanned several decades and moods. The Parker & Farr 1970s modular sofa suite, four chairs and a footstool in turquoise flame-stitch fabric, was the highest price of the sale at £1,000, with the Greaves & Thomas pair of light elm lounge armchairs close behind at £800. The Ekornes Stressless reclining swivel armchair and footstool achieved £460, and the Ercol Model '203' easy chair in cyan fabric sold for £340.

Glass, Pottery and Period Charm

Our final group brought together some of the names collectors came looking for. Alison Brigden's Troika double bass lamp, a 1970s Cornish studio art pottery piece with geometric designs on a green ground and signed to the base, realised £600. Geoffrey Baxter's Whitefriars TV vase in Kingfisher blue was close behind at £550. The Kodak Films clock made £300, and the John Clappison for Hornsea bowl, five trinket dishes and two cups fetched £180.

From Kingfisher blue glass to a gilt palm tree lamp, this sale showed the range of mid-century and contemporary design, and the appetite for pieces with real character. A full room of bidders helped, and the Ercol room divider, the Parker & Farr sofa suite, the Atmos clock and the Troika lamp all performed well. If you'd like to see how every lot fared, you can browse the full results using the link below.

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