Latest News Articles by Terence Ryle
Sumptuous silk at just £350
30 April 2018The world of Chinese art remains open to collectors on modest budgets if they look to some of the less fashionable wares, those from later periods and pieces that carry damage.
Furniture provides market comfort in and outside London
23 April 2018Among the flurry of sales providing a welcome spring tonic for the trade generally, two weighted heavily towards furniture provided welcome encouragement.
Postcards revealing all aspects of Jewish life
23 April 2018A remarkable collection of around 4500 postcards relating to a wide range of aspects of Jewish life in the 19th and 20th centuries was the fascinating, and often sobering, centre of interest when offered by Norfolk auction house Horners (17% buyer’s premium).
French automaton musical bird hits the right notes
23 April 2018On song at Stratford-upon-Avon, a late 19th century French automaton musical bird soared beyond the £1000-1500 estimate at Bigwood (19% buyer’s premium).
Market with buyers happy to splash cash
23 April 2018If a 74% selling rate points to continued selectivity among furniture bidders, the hammer total of £534,000 achieved at Dreweatts’ (24% buyer’s premium) 275-lot Fine Furniture and Works of Art sale showed they also have money to spend – “a trend we’ve seen for a while now”, said auctioneer Ben Brown.
Walnut chest wows at £5500
23 April 2018This 19th century French walnut chest of drawers, offered at Ewbank’s (22.5% buyer’s premium) Surrey rooms, sold at £5500.
Provincial auction houses prosper in spring
09 April 2018The sort of large-scale, widely varied provincial auction which had Cheffins auctioneer Luke Macdonald enthusing “it was like selling used to be 15 years ago” after his March 7-8 sale at Cambridge (ATG No 2335) is rarer than it used to be, but plainly alive and well and prospering.
The two sides of William and Mary
09 April 2018Two William and Mary side tables, one period and the other catalogued as ‘style’, bringing different results in March.
Petrol pump globe lamp at £5000? That’s the spirit
02 April 2018One says Scottish rather than Scotch except when one is referring to the spirit – or indeed, motor spirit as evident at the Edinburgh rooms of Thomson Roddick Scottish Auctions (17.5% buyer’s premium).
Poor passenger pigeon finds a new nest
02 April 2018With species extermination very much in the news following the death of the world’s last male northern white rhino, there was added poignancy to a cased and stuff bird offered at Summers Place Auctions (25% buyer’s premium).
Caddy makes a return to the Netherlands
02 April 2018Harking back to when the Netherlands was a powerful player in the tea trade, a rare, early 18th century silver caddy attracted international interest at Halls (20% buyer’s premium) of Shrewsbury.
Selwood springs up in Surrey sale
02 April 2018Made by William Selwood (1607-53), one of London’s finest clockmakers before the ‘Golden Age’, this 16½in (42cm) mid-17th century brass lantern clock topped Ewbank’s (22.5% buyer’s premium) spring sale in Send.
All hail the studio pottery market
02 April 2018Having for decades been like one of those obscure religions in which passionate believers go about their business to the benign bemusement of everyone else, studio pottery is winning converts by the day.
Clear demand for black and white classic John Ward
02 April 2018Selling just short of the auction record, this 10in (26cm) tall stoneware pot, below, by John Ward (b.1938) went to an online bidder on thesaleroom.com at £17,500 at Rogers Jones (20% buyer’s premium) in Cardiff.
Plainer studio pottery styles attract their own faithful following
02 April 2018The 96-lot section of studio pottery offered at Woolley & Wallis’ (25% buyer’s premium) wide-ranging ceramics sale at Salisbury on March 21 included a private collection of the work of David Leach (1911-2005) and Walter Keeler (b.1942).
Communist drummer boy sparks red alert in London
26 March 2018Peoples of Russia part II… On these pages last week (ATG No 2330) mention was made of the series of porcelain figures of ethnic Russians produced by the Imperial Factory in St Petersburg from the late 18th century up to the revolution.
‘It was like selling used to be…’ says Cambridge auctioneer after super sale
26 March 2018There is little like a new house-record to leave an auctioneer smiling but there was considerably more for Luke Macdonald to celebrate following Cheffins’ (22.5% buyer’s premium) spring sale.
Watch touched by the hand of Frod
26 March 2018While many a hopeful vendor has to be told gently that great-great-grandpa’s pocket watch is worth little more than the melt price of the metal, a complication or major name – such as the signature Ch. Frodsham, London to the movement of this example, below – makes all the difference.
Petit service is big-seller
26 March 2018Porcelain by Jacob Petit (1797-1868) is a scarce sight at provincial rooms.
Decorators show a sense of style with auction buys
26 March 2018“It’s not the age or pedigree – it’s the look of the piece.” The phrase became less a heresy and more a cliché during the latter years of the furniture boom of blessed memory, when the increasingly influential decorator trade was spending substantial sums on 19th and early 20th century reproductions.