Cheffins

Pairs of Georgian candlesticks by the best-known London specialist makers such as William Cafe and Ebenezer Coker continue to sell well enough, as long as condition is acceptable.

The latest batch of period portraits to pass through Cheffins featured several from a late-16th century property in Great Chesterford, Essex. Passed by descent, the quartet was led by an attractive English School portrait of Queen Mary I (1516-58), an oil painted on an oval 2ft x 21in (62 x 53cm) canvas.

British watercolours depicting the beautiful county of Devon and painted during the medium’s golden age drew eager bidding at Cheffins of Cambridge (22.5% buyer’s premium).

Bids of £100 and upwards bought bidders a history of the English hearth and home among the Crowther lots at Cheffins on June 13-14, where 80% of the lower-priced items went to private buyers.

It was the last flickerings of the dynasty which took salvage from the demolition site and put it back into the drawing room.

No two jobs are the same for the art shippers offering a bespoke service at the top end.

Three modestly valued works in regional sales, including an oil on canvas of Bude in Cornwall by Charles Collins (1851-1921).

T Crowther & Sons was founded in 1880 in Fulham and was well established before the First World War. The company was split into two sections in the 1940s: Albert Crowther trading from Syon Lodge and T Crowther & Sons in Fulham.

Barbara Jones joins a growing band whose peacetime work is also now in strong demand.

A look at the latest saleroom appointments, including Roseberys appointing a former director and works of art specialist at Christie’s.

Among Horace Hone’s (1756-1825) most renowned depictions was the 18th century actress Sarah Siddons.

There is little like a new house-record to leave an auctioneer smiling but there was considerably more for Luke Macdonald to celebrate following Cheffins’ (22.5% buyer’s premium) spring sale.

Led by the portrait of an Italian mastiff by il Guercino (1591-1666), dogs took a starring role in the Cheffins' March 8 sale. The delightful oil of a stocky ‘Cane Corso’, perhaps the artist’s own dog, overshot a £80,000-120,000 estimate and was knocked down at £570,000 – the highest auction price in the English regions so far this year.

British portraiture with pedigree provided plenty of action in a strong sale of pictures at Cheffins (22.5% buyer’s premium) of Cambridge.

The run of recent six-figure auction sums in the English regions now includes Cheffins posting a house record in Cambridge.