Furniture

Another classic piece of English furniture to go well above expectations was a Regency mahogany window seat in the style of George Bullock offered by the Cumbrian firm 1818 Auctioneers (17/12% buyer’s premium).

As with the overall market, Dutch furniture is much less popular than it once was and the 18th century walnut, floral marquetry and ivory-inlaid bombé bureau cabinet, below, had a couple of condition problems for bidders at Andrew Smith (19% buyer’s premium).

Specialists who relaunched North Yorkshire auction house generate old-school optimism.

English furniture, works of art and decorations of the most traditional kind were the object of a 365-lot, single-owner sale held by Doyle (25/20/12.5%) buyer’s premium in New York.

“The selling price was really encouraging,” said Chichester auctioneer Peter Parker after an 18th century walnut chest made £5800, “but it just emphasises how polarised the market is between the top end and the rest.”

Tony Haynes of Haynes Fine Art is preparing to show a room-set from the collection of Vivien Leigh at his London gallery next month – but not to sell it.

The first of a series of events to mark the tercentenary of Thomas Chippendale’s birth has opened at Leeds City Museum.

Antique Church Furnishings, which describes itself as ‘God’s Furniture since 1985’, sells almost everything in the religious line – from chasubles to crucifixes and misericordes to missal stands.

Upholstered Victorian armchairs not being the most in-demand of auction lots at present, the £100-150 estimate of a pair offered at Greenslade Taylor Hunt (19.5% buyer’s premium) did not seem overly pessimistic.

Galloway Antiques Fairs returns for its second edition at the Midhurst stately home Cowdray House this year.

Antique pine furniture has many followers who buy it battered and cheap and simply ‘tart it up’ with an invariably low degree of skill and taste to sell on.

Designed by Bodil Kjaer, this 1960s oak, palisander and steel ‘executive desk’ offered at Chiswick Auctions (23% buyer’s premium) is a classic example of the huge influence of Scandinavian architects on Western post-war design.

Christopher Howe has been dealing from the Pimlico Road area for the past 30 years but he likes to shake things up.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

Bargueño desks, designed to hold documents and money, originated in Renaissance Spain and remained popular through the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries.