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.

This Empire-period gilt throne or ceremonial chair, measuring 3ft 11in (1.2m) high and 2ft 3in (76cm) wide, is one of the highlights of an April 7 sale of historic artefacts and memorabilia titled l’Empire à Fontainebleau.

A former cake factory site near Southport is the base for dealer Brett Griffiths, who is also one of the big fans of IACF’s fairs.

Sworders offers late 19th and 20th century styles reflecting the period zeitgeist.

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.

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.

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

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).

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

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.

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.

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.