Furniture

After 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.

Among the many decorative works of art in Nagel’s sale in Stuttgart on February 27-28 is this 3ft 8in (1.12m) high mirror in an ornately carved gilt frame.

In the early 1980s the London-based designer Ron Arad experimented with new forms of industrial design, incorporating materials that would otherwise have been discarded.

Comprehensive collection amassed over 30 years attracts very choosy buyers at auction.

A 1976 secretaire by Bernt Rosen was one of the highlight sales at last month’s Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair in Battersea where US buyers jostled with locals to bag the best objects.

With vendors now well adjusted to realities of the market, the demand for standard Georgian furniture is unspectacular but steady.

A set of four Cotswold School Arts & Crafts wall sconces, one shown below, was catalogued by Moore Allen & Innocent (20% buyer’s premium) as in the Wild Strawberry pattern and in the manner of Ernest Gimson (1864-1919).

This Aesthetic movement X-frame armchair took £11,000 against an estimate of just £100-150 at Lawrences of Crewkerne.

Dealers spend a lot of time and thought on the catalogues they bring out to showcase stock – here is the latest in our occasional series looking at recent examples covering a range of art and antiques

Buyers are spoilt for choice during May and early June when three decorative and salvage fairs will be running in the UK, all in interesting outdoor settings. Here is a short focus on them.

The sale of a family collection of British and American art and antiques assembled by three successive generations of South Carolina enthusiasts will go under the hammer through Childress Gaffney auctions in Greenville on February 9.

Topped by the 17th century Dutch bottles at £30,000 (see ATG No 2375), the year’s first sale at Hannam’s (23% buyer’s premium) had other treasures among the 2000 lots including the French bronze figural torchères, right.

The continued interest in Victorian music boxes in this age of Spotify and streaming was evident when three were among the 1500-lot sale held by Unique Auctions (17.5% buyer’s premium) to launch the new year.

The traditionally ‘dead’ period between Christmas and New Year was enlivened by the December 28 sale at Wotton Auction Rooms (17.5% buyer’s premium) in Gloucestershire – to the extent that more than 20,000 people suffering withdrawal symptoms worldwide viewed it online and 1360 of them registered to bid.

Historically the first major sale of the year, the January ‘furniture’ auction at Woolley & Wallis (25% buyer’s premium) turns eyes towards Salisbury for evidence of what the next 12 months will bring.