Sherle Wagner basins

Basins from the landmark Hotel Prince Regent, Weymouth come to auction 

Duke’s Auctioneers are delighted to offer a pair of Sherle Wagner basins in their forthcoming Art and Design Post 1880 auction.
These Sherle Wagner basins were discovered buried beneath a pile of carpets and wallpaper, in the old bar of the Hotel Prince Regent, one of the grand old establishments that line the seafront at Weymouth.

The history of the basins has been passed on to us by the previous caretaker of the hotel.  
They had formerly belonged to the Savoy Hotel in London, from where they were purchased, during a major refurbishment of the Hotel Prince Regent. The owners of the Prince Regent had planned to install them in one of their luxury rooms, alongside a Victorian four-poster bed. Sadly, the necessary works needed to fit them could not be undertaken in this room, and they were left languishing in a corner of the old lower bar of the hotel. One day, a member of the maintenance staff, clearing out the bar, stumbled upon the basins, their Onyx pedestals still intact beneath the layers of cobwebs. 

Their scalloped shapes and pale, translucent colour are redolent of the opulence of the great era of English hotels, and the seaside in its heyday.