Furniture

This pair of 19th century Arts & Crafts low oak chairs is available from Elaine Phillips Antiques at the next edition of The Pavilions of Harrogate Decorative Antiques & Fine Art Fair priced at £1150.

A fine pair of Regency dwarf bookcases in the manner of George Oakley sold for £58,000 at the Martel Maides saleroom in St Peter Port, Guernsey.

More homely than the material being produced in Scandinavia and France, the adzed oak furniture first made by Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson in the 1920s-30s was, nevertheless, a distinctive genre.

In terms of name recognition in the UK, Alvar Aalto is probably outranked by the American couple Charles Eames (1907-78) and his wife Ray (1912-88). Of their output the lounge chair (670) and ottoman (671) designed in 1956 is the most iconic.

When it comes to 20th century furniture female designers are a rarity. Some folk still think ‘Ray’ Eames – real name Bernice – was a man.

A French Art Nouveau mahogany drop-front writing bureau, c.1925, is among the objects featured in a special exhibition at the spring edition of the Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair in Battersea.

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

A pair of rare George II rosewood candlestands c.1745-60 has been reunited by Fairfax House in York after one of them was spotted at a Woolley & Wallis auction at the start of the year.

A selection of post-war Italian pieces from the interiors of Casa Lucano, a large apartment in Milan designed by Gio Ponti in 1951, will be offered in a joint auction by Phillips and Italian auction house Cambi in London on March 21.

Although catalogued as 18th century, this marquetry table cabinet – sold for a multi-estimate sum in Ireland last week – is more probably late 16th or early 17th century.

Never wholly out of demand since top Victorian upholsterer Howard & Sons began producing furniture from its Soho premises, these built-for-comfort sofas and armchairs continue to excel whenever offered at auction.