Bellmans

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.

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.

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 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.

Three upcoming UK book auctions

The March 30-31 sale at Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium) in Wisborough Green included three pieces from the Royal Crown Derby Judge Gary service.

A couple of elegant portraits from the collection of Professor Bernard Nevill (1930-2019) drew keen interest at Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium).

A lively 17th century painting showing people in a Flemish tavern, drinking, smoking and playing cards with a man playing the bagpipes will be among the lots at Bellmans’ Old Master & 19th Century Paintings auction in Wisborough Green, West Sussex, on March 29.

A white agate intaglio carrying the name of a giant of Georgian gem engraving surfaced at Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium) in Wisborough Green, West Sussex, on February 22-24.

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