Furniture

Ecclesiastic buildings can be the source of good secular antiques: typically items bequeathed in the distant past by parishioners for church use.

Specialist auctions staged in Stowmarket with expert input show encouraging signs

This early Georgian walnut open armchair was one of the highlights of the sale of Old Master paintings, English and Continental furniture, silver and decorative arts held by Doyle (26/21/15% buyer’s premium) in New York on January 26.

January in London – and the days of garden parties and al fresco dining seem a long way off. Yet at the latest Decorative Antiques and Textiles Fair, outdoor items experienced strong demand.

Among the more unusual recent lots at Woolley & Wallis (25% buyer’s premium) was an early Victorian table carved from parrot coal.

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

A new auction record for Edward Barnsley was among the many highlights of the Minoprio collection of Cotswold School furniture sold by Lyon & Turnbull (25% buyer’s premium).

This fine example of Vienna Secession furniture was bought last year in a junk shop on the south coast for just £5.

The earliest work in Modernity’s exhibition on Paavo Tynell (1890-1973) is a 1930s ceiling lamp (model 1926).

This family group of four polychromed limewood kneeling figures, made in England c.1610-30, is to go on offer with Cotswolds dealership Houlston.

Two of the main manufacturers of rocking horses – and competitors – featured in two salerooms recently.

Although catalogued by Smiths of Newent (20% buyer’s premium) as a chair from the early 19th century Empire period, this ebonised mahogany, gilt and polychrome side chair is more probably from the mid-Victorian period.

Fine art dealer Daniel Hunt has launched an auction business opposite his former dealership in Sloane Street.

The so-called Arundel Lions were once a well-known landmark in Sheffield.

Lyon & Turnbull’s single-owner sale titled The Minoprio Collection: British Design in the Arts & Crafts Tradition included some very strong prices for mid-century Cotswolds School furnishings.