Art Nouveau fetches £40,000

It was one of the largest collections of hand-painted Victorian tiles

A large private collection of Art Nouveau fetched about £40,000 when it when it went under the hammer at an auction in Shropshire.

The varied collection, from a vendor from Shifnal, included lots ranging from a bedroom suite to decorative ceramics and Victorian tiles.

The seller, who is moving abroad, had been collecting since the early 1960s and his selection of Victorian tiles and tile panels included work by leading Shropshire and Staffordshire potters William de Morgan, Maws and Co and Craven Dunhill.

The sale was held at Halls Fine Art's Welsh Bridge salerooms in Shrewsbury on Wednesday.

Niche area

Christina Trevanion, of Halls Fine Art, said it was the largest single vendor collection of hand-painted Victorian tiles to come up for auction since a sale at Bonham's in the early 1990s.

"We're all extremely pleased that the market is so buoyant at the moment, especially for tiles, which are very portable," she said.

She told BBC News Online that the success of sales like this could partly be explained by a recent upsurge in interest in interior design, partly sparked by television programmes fronted by presenters like Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen.

She added: "People are also looking for a niche area to collect."