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A complete family archive documenting more than a century of champion Bloodhound breeding sold for £2,800 at Aubreys Auctioneers & Valuers on 30th July, against a pre-sale estimate of £300–£500.
The Brighton Kennels Collection was offered as a single lot in the firm's Jewellery, Art & Antiques Auction at Loseley Park, Guildford. Bidding was contested from the opening moments and drew several competing bidders in the United States, a reflection of the kennel's long transatlantic influence on the breed.
Brighton Bloodhound Kennels was founded in 1908 by Henry Hylden and continued by successive generations of the Hylden and Ickeringill family. The archive was consigned directly by a descendant, having remained in family ownership throughout.
The kennel became one of Britain's leading Bloodhound breeders during the twentieth century. Before the Second World War its dogs regularly won at championship shows, and after the war it helped rebuild British Bloodhound bloodlines through carefully selected imports from North America and decades of thoughtful breeding. That American connection ran in both directions, and it was still evident in the saleroom on the day.
Among its greatest champions was Champion Cheyenne of Brighton, one of the most successful Bloodhounds of the 1960s, winning eleven Challenge Certificates, numerous Best of Breed awards, Best Puppy in Show, a Junior Warrant and Hound Group wins. The archive also reflects the achievements of Lilian Hylden, whose reputation as a breeder and championship judge earned invitations to officiate at major shows in Britain and the United States.
The collection included original oil paintings by F. T. Daws, among them Colonel of Brighton, the kennel's original stud dog, together with further paintings by D. Holland depicting other Brighton champions.
Alongside the paintings were three boxed silver awards, five boxed bronze awards, a boxed 1923 silver medal commemorating the Lonsdale Challenge Cup awarded to Ch. Dark of Brighton, two 1915 silver award plaques presented by The Bloodhound Hunt Club, a Birmingham hallmarked silver inkwell of 1930, championship medals, Challenge Certificates, trophies, rosettes, kennel records and extensive correspondence spanning more than a hundred years of breeding, exhibiting and judging.
The photographs offered a more personal record: handlers exercising hounds across the Sussex Downs, champions posed in the show ring, and family life at the kennels. In 2008 the American Bloodhound Club presented a signed testimonial marking the kennel's centenary and recognising the family's hundred years of work in developing and preserving the breed. That tribute formed part of the archive, and it goes some way to explaining why the strongest competition on the day came from across the Atlantic.
Few collections of this kind survive intact. Where trophies, paintings and papers are usually dispersed over the decades, this archive had stayed together since 1908, and the result reflected how unusual that is. Material of genuine rarity finds its buyers wherever they happen to be, and a modest estimate on an unrepeatable group of this sort frequently proves to be the floor rather than the ceiling.
If you have inherited a similar archive, collection or family heirloom and would like to discover its auction value, Aubreys Auctioneers & Valuers offers free, no-obligation valuations, including home visits across Surrey and London.
Aubreys Auctioneers & Valuers is an independent, family-run auction house based at Loseley Park, Guildford, with an office in Mayfair, London. The firm holds monthly specialist auctions of jewellery, watches, silver, fine art and antiques, attracting bidders from across the UK and internationally.
