Glassware

This bakelite and electroplated cocktail shaker is from the Master Incolor series made for sale at the Wilson and Gill on Regent Street in the 1930s.

The firebreakers, circuitbreakers, alerts and tiers have made recent weeks feel chaotic. But dealers are carrying on regardless, devising new and different ways to sell their stock safely, whether online, through catalogues or in person.

A rare scent bottle designed by one of the leading figures in the French Art Nouveau movement was the highlight of a sale of perfume bottles and jewellery held by Copages (23% buyer’s premium) at Drouot in Paris.

Dating to the second quarter of the 16th century, this stained-glass moon comes from northern France and is offered now by St James’s dealership Colnaghi.

This green patinated Cyclamen perfume bottle made c.1912 by René Lalique for Coty is part of a private Chicago collection of Lalique scent bottles that feature in Heritage Auctions’ Tiffany, Lalique and Art Glass sale in Dallas, Texas, on October 22.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

Estimated at £20,000- 30,000, a façon de Venise gilded, enamel led and engraved vase and cover sold for £70,000 (plus 27.5/25% buyer’s premium) last week.

Over the years, Wolf Horst Röhl, who died in 2005, amassed an impressive collection of 17th and 18th century Dutch and German cut glass.

Though the first human in-socket artificial eyes were created by Venetian glassmakers c.16th century, the earliest evidence of ocular prosthesis was found in a female burial plot in Shahr-I Sokhta, Iran – dating back to 2900-2800 BC.

Once the second city in the kingdom, Norwich had its own silver assay office during three periods between 1565 and 1702.

The best-known press-moulded models made by John Derbyshire at the Regent Road Flint Glassworks in Salford are the series of animal and figural paperweights made in frosted, flint and coloured glass.

A format increasingly popular with dealers can help ‘enhance the understanding of objects’

A highlight of the Summer’s Bounty Auction held by Thomaston Place Auction Galleries (17%/20% online buyer’s premium) of Maine was this British reverse glass painting dated to the late 18th century.

An ensemble of jewellery by René Lalique was on offer in a Decorative Arts sale held by Tessier & Sarrou (28% buyer’s premium) at Drouot. All the pieces were signed examples of his distinctive Art Nouveau style and inventive use of non-precious materials.

Included in Morphy Auctions’ fine and decorative arts sale to be held in Denver, Pennsylvania, on July 14-15 is a selection of scent bottles made by the Stourbridge firm of Thomas Webb.

This 19th century, c.1860, gilt bronze and cut-glass comport will feature in Roland Auctions’ June 27 Estates sale at Glen Cove, New York.

A selection of four 18th century drinking glasses appearing at auctions in May 2020.

Jeffrey S Evans’ spring sale of 18th and 19th century glassware and lighting takes place in Mount Crawford, Virginia. It includes a collection of more than 100 18th and 19th century English drinking glasses, to be offered unreserved on May 20.

Treadway Gallery’s Spring Sale of decorative arts will be held in Cincinnati on May 3 using phone, internet and absentee bidding but with no public attendance.

Tiffany and Lalique glassware from a private New York City collector provided some of the highlights in the Clarke Auction Gallery (25% buyer’s premium) online and phone bidding sale.