Hartleys

When Hartleys’ valuer Daisy Hodgson was rummaging through an old biscuit tin in a family home in north London she spotted something that she thought might have great potential.

While the market for post-war wares by Thompson’s of Kilburn – particularly the animal and figure carvings – has grown substantially in recent years, the ‘prime period’ for Mouseman collecting remains the 1920s-30s.

Top names in their different fields, ages and markets, Wurlitzer and Armand Marseilles were the star makers at Hartleys (17.5% buyer’s premium).

Few furniture forms suffered a bigger crash in prices than the davenport.

Dunhill Aquarium table lighters painted by Margaret Bennett and husband Alan in the 1950s-60s remain popular among collectors in these non-smoking days.

Spider-Man has made a couple of successful appearances in recent UK sales.

Auctioneer Andrew Dickson Hartley (of Hartleys of Ilkley) died on September 3, aged 75.

Preview held in imposing stately home helps to boost interest ahead of first sale section.

Three modestly valued works selling at regional sales including a Herbert Thomas Dicksee polar bear print.

Three modestly valued works selling at regional sales including a John Piper church screen print.

After the Hartleys (17.5% buyer’s premium) September 4 sale, auctioneer Andrew Hartley admitted: “Furniture did not perform as it was hoped from tiny chinks of daylight discernible in the last few months.”

Pouring wine at the table from a standardised machine-made bottle is a relatively new custom. For centuries before the Victorian era, wine was typically bought and stored in the barrel and decanted into bottles or jugs only before use at the table.

Never out of fashion, the best furniture by Robert Thompson is going through one of its periodic surges – as evident at Wilkinson’s Doncaster rooms last month (ATG No 2369) and at Sworders of Stansted Mountfichet (ATG No 2363) in October.

Wintry scenes by two local artists created a brighter picture at a recent auction in Yorkshire.

An album of 40 albumen images by pioneering photographer John Thomson with direct appeal to the market for early depictions of the Orient was the outstanding star at Hartleys (17.5% buyer’s premium).

An Edwardian Carlton House satinwood desk of the type which was once a best-seller at auction, but an early casualty of the furniture slump, was back in favour at the Hartleys (17.5% buyer’s premium) summer sale in Ilkley.

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

The belief that porcelain dolls are somehow sinister has taken hold in recent years – and doubtless the appearance of the rare bebe pictured below rather reinforced the bias of some who viewed the Heliers (18% buyer’s premium) sale at Blackburn.