Latest News Articles by Terence Ryle
Basic quality shines through in Ely
11 March 2019This early 18th century walnut chest of drawers offered at Rowley’s (22.5% buyer’s premium) Ely rooms on February 16 had plenty going for it including small size at 2ft 8in (81cm) wide, a crossbanded top and a brushing slide.
Buyer loves Lalique rarity value
11 March 2019Rather sparsely catalogued, this unusual 14in (36cm) Lalique glass dish with a lovebirds design had emerged from a local unpaid storage unit into Hannam’s (23% buyer’s premium) February 18-20 sale in Selborne. Given a here-to-sell estimate of £150-200, it took £4200.
Winter auction greeted with warm response
04 March 2019The plethora of single-collection sales at the start of the year was not at the expense of old-fashioned auctions offering good-quality offerings across the range of dealing and collecting – such as the Winter Fine Arts sale at Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) of Dorchester.
Weighty result at Stroud
04 March 2019What seems to have been an overdue clear-out at Monmouth Trading Standards department led to half a dozen lots of imperial weights and measures being consigned to Stroud Auctions (18% buyer’s premium).
Revivalist furniture full of life at auction
04 March 2019Regarded in their time as examples of the finest cabinet-making rather than simply reproductions, good 19th century French revivalist furniture remains in demand.
Double window panels at triple value
04 March 2019Two Victorian stained-glass and leaded window panels entered by the same vendor trebled the estimates in selling to the same UK online bidder at Special Auction Services (17.5% buyer’s premium) on February 5.
Hornby-Dublo on track for £2400 result
04 March 2019Travelling from Glasgow to the south of England courtesy of a commission bid, this Hornby-Dublo train EDG 7 tank goods set, right, went at 10 times the lower estimate at McTear’s (24% buyer’s premium) sale on February 1.
Jerusalem church model goes to Jerusalem buyer
04 March 2019The sale at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood (plus 21% buyer’s premium) on January 29 – an event dominated by the multi-estimate performance of a Qianlong mark vase in the Ming taste sold at £460,000 (see ATG No 2378) – also included a hardwood (probably olivewood), bone and mother-of-pearl inlaid model of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
A collector with a good eye for varied purchases
25 February 2019Billed as a private London collection, the February 5 sale at Chiswick Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) betrayed a single owner with a good eye and wide-ranging enthusiasms.
Group offers Egyptian relics at affordable prices
25 February 2019The best Egyptian antiquities now engender much more than mere scholastic fervour but, for the most part, humbler objects remain eminently affordable.
Time recorders and machines of their time
25 February 2019Two single-owner collections built up over lifetimes were well received at Canterbury Auction Galleries (20% buyer’s premium) on February 5-6.
Seaweed marquetry longcase clock causes auction ripple
25 February 2019Good times at the Oxford rooms of Mallams (20% buyer’s premium), when all bar one of 56 clocks got away almost all going comfortably above estimates.
Five-figure Irish chalice sells in Lancashire
25 February 2019Out-sold by the 100-times estimate £22,000 Japanese vase featured on last week’s News pages (ATG No 2380), this gold and silver-gilt chalice, right, offered at Lytham St Annes auction house Gerrards (18% buyer’s premium) on February 7 was a more predictable five-figure star.
Byronmania grips bidders in extensive single-owner sale
25 February 2019With the great country house contents sales of the past now largely a distant memory, single-owner collection sales have become the next-best thing.
Beyond Byron at the Harold Ward sale
25 February 2019Collectables untouched by Byronmania but selling well at the Harold Ward auction at Mellors & Kirk on February 6-7 included a 19th century ‘Grand Tour’ Italian alabaster model of the Piazza del Duomo, Pisa, and a gold-mounted malacca walking cane engraved to the pommel with the 1816-37 royal arms.
Interior designer’s taste fuels white-glove auction
25 February 2019A very different residence to Harold Ward’s Manthorpe House (see Mellors & Kirk story in Auction Reports this edition) supplied the very different contents to the 600-lot single-owner collection, white-glove sale held at Bellmans’ (22% buyer’s premium) Billingshurst saleroom on February 9.
Revived auction house Hutchinson Scott powers forward
18 February 2019After re-booting the moribund firm of Hutchinson Scott (20% buyer’s premium) in 2016, former dealers Michael Scott and Paul Hodson have now bought their premises at Embsay Mill at Skipton.
George IV carriage clock made by James Murray sells over 10-times estimate McTear’s
18 February 2019Given a surprising £200-300 estimate, a George IV brass and glass carriage clock was one of the stars of McTear’s (23% buyer’s premium) Glasgow sale on February 1.
Cross-section of great designs offered in Essex
18 February 2019Sworders offers late 19th and 20th century styles reflecting the period zeitgeist.
Fine scrimshaw sells in Scarborough
18 February 2019Two fine examples of scrimshaw were eagerly contested at the David Duggleby (21% buyer’s premium inc VAT) Scarborough auction of maritime antiques and instruments.