Bellmans

Collector who helped Madonna on road to stardom becomes the centre of attention in West Sussex saleroom

By the time the Baltars ceramics painting workshop was established in 1925 the country where it was founded – Latvia – had been accepted by the international community as independent for just four years.

A couple of cat pictures made bidders’ whiskers twitch of late.

Born into a Jewish Orthodox family in Brooklyn, New York, Seymour Stein (1943-2023) discovered his love of pop music early on, listening to records and memorising Billboard magazine’s charts.

Needing work but with an impeccable pedigree, this striking drop-dial wall clock topped the day at Bellmans (25% buyer’s premium).

William Christian Symons (1845-1911) had a varied career, working as a designer for Royal Doulton but also in a wide range of roles.

A later but good copy of George Stubbs’ (1724-1806) famous painting Portrait of The Royal Tiger earned its stripes when it emerged at auction.

Having featured prominently on television in a specially made part of the late Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations, Paddington Bear hardly needs any more publicity.

The record-setting piece of Beswick pottery at a recent sale at Potteries Auctions (20% buyer’s premium) – a rare variant of a shire horse model that fetched £11,300 (ATG No 2569) – was not the only lot bringing notable demand.

A group of 24 works from the collection of Wilfred and Jeannette Cass provided a boost to Bellmans’ (22% buyer’s premium) latest Modern British and 20th Century Art auction.

Among the works attracting interest at a recent Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium) sale were two pictures formerly in the collection at Shakenhurst Hall.

Translation was first time a major poem of antiquity appeared in an English language form.

While many US museums display portraits of famous Patriots from the War of Independence, especially the likes of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and Nathanael Greene, pictures of Loyalists are less common in their collections.

Inspired by his trips to Richmond Park in south-west London, French-born sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (1891-1915) fashioned a number of deer sculptures.

With the added lustre of having been worn by a Fifties aristocratic supermodel, two jewellery items entered by her grandchildren were the stars at Bellmans’ (22% buyer’s premium) sale of items from a Shropshire manor.

Bellmans is holding a special book and manuscript auction as part of the October sales series, on October 11, with the majority of books coming from one collection.

Bellmans is selling the collection of Anthony and Marietta Coleridge on September 7-8.

Horror and fantasy novelist went from buying comic art to modern European purchases.

The recent auction at Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium) included the firm’s biannual horological offering.