Chiswick Auctions

Association with the name boosts value as part of a sale dedicated to the poet.

With the UK auction calendar yet to undergo significant changes and cancellations due to the coronavirus outbreak, many sales took place last week. Here are three highlights from around the country.

The near dominance of Scandinavians among mid-20th century designers of wood furniture and artefacts was underlined at two sales at Chiswick Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) in February.

Business was certainly hard-won but the elite of Britain and Ireland’s regional fine art auction houses enjoyed a largely positive 2019.

Chiswick Auctions will offer a single-owner collection of memorabilia relating to the second generation English Romantic poet, George Gordon Byron (1788-1824).

Two Frances Hodgkins (1869-1947) gouache watercolours painted during her artistic prime were taken to multi-estimate sums at separate UK salerooms in the same week.

Bid to £3000 at Chiswick Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) on November 20 was a rare and early game.

This group of late-19th century Chinese export bowls and saucers was made for the Middle Eastern market – specifically for the Qajar prince Mas’ud Mirza Zill al-Sultan (1850-1918).

A Qianlong teapot which made £800,000 in Dorchester provided the stellar result among some exceptional Asian art lots offered for sale in the UK regions and Ireland last week.

Although the catalogue noted the rarity of a Queen Anne silver tazza and tankard having been together for more than 300 years, they were offered separately at Lawrences (25% buyer’s premium) of Crewkerne.

Code locked in a briefcase for two decades, a finely preserved, 1997 first issue of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was finally released this summer after being delivered by its Lancashire owners into the hands of a Derbyshire saleroom.

Pictured below is one of the 26 views, after Coke Smyth, that form a first edition copy of John Frederick Lewis’ 'Illustrations of Constantinople, Made During a Residence in that City &c., in the Years 1835-6'.

Made in Gujarat or Sindh in the 18th century, a sandalwood table cabinet profusely inlaid with ivory flowers and tendrils throughout was a fine example of Mughal craftsmanship and led the way at a recent sale at Chiswick Auctions (25% buyer’s premium).

Coloured diamonds aside, rubies command higher prices per carat than any other gemstone. Graded using the traditional criteria of the four Cs (colour, cut, clarity and carat weight), they are also evaluated on the basis of geographic origin with the stones from Burma commanding the most interest.