Lindsay Burns

Pairs of Regency sofas brought some very comfortable sums at two Scottish auction houses as the autumn season began last week.

The classic enamel station totem signs used in the early days of the newly formed British Railways have long shown their pulling power at auction.

A selection of these functional but fascinating objects that have appeared at recent sales

Indian talismanic shirts or Qur’an jama were believed to carry protective powers.

Collection of distinctive pre-war glass produced in Perth impresses at local saleroom

The best-performing entry of the Lindsay Burns (20% buyer’s premium) sale in Perth on July 20-22 against estimate was a militaria lot.

The three-day sale at Lindsay Burns in Perth on July 20-22 includes this Qing porcelain blue and white vase decorated with five dragons contesting a flaming pearl amid cloud scrolls.

Unearthed in a group lot at Lindsay Burns (20% buyer’s premium) in Perth, this Roman marbled Samian ware bowl is believed to closely relate to another in the British Museum.

Delay due to lockdown turns out to be a blessing in disguise in terms of consignments

Pictured below are three lots of Oceanic art that proved to be in much demand during UK sales held in August.

A watercolour study of a dead pheasant attributed to JMW Turner (1775-1851) was taken to £14,000 at a Scottish auction house.

A white-metal regimental badge estimated at £50-100 sold for £4800 at Lindsay Burns (20% buyer’s premium) in Perth, Scotland, on September 3. Why? It probably hailed from the time and place of the American War of Independence (1775-83).

Just a little less famous than Fry’s 'Five Boys' image is the illustration by Tom Browne of a multi-class group outside a sweetshop with the line from 'Troilus and Cressida: One touch of Nature makes the whole World kin'.

It may be strange and surreal, but John Spencer-Churchill’s (1909-92) landscape panorama of the evacuation of Dunkirk is the only depiction of the event known to have been painted by an eyewitness.

Charles Rattray was a tobacconist and blender of fine tobaccos at 160 High Street, Perth. The firm occupied these premises from c.1915 until 1981.