Lyon & Turnbull

With sales of post-1860 design a seasonal fixture round the country, an argument could be made for Scottish auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull (25% buyer’s premium) having a geographical edge.

Figuring why a specific lot did unexpectedly well is part and parcel of reviewing auctions but this oil on board lunette of a pastoral idyll below is more of a challenge than most.

Sales held on consecutive days in Edinburgh and London produced two lots that ended up selling for far, far higher than expected sums.

So much more successful than their 18th century forebears, today’s Jacobites go from strength to strength.

A raft of contemporary and post-war art featured in the busy August schedule in Scotland. Such art remains a picky and tempestuous market north of the border. The latest results were scattered with a mix of bullish and more subdued results.

Security shouldn’t be too much of a problem when opening a gallery space if one of your new neighbours is a former prime minister protected by armed guards. But aside from Tony Blair’s London residence down the road, Lyon & Turnbull had plenty of its own reasons for choosing Connaught Street, just north of Hyde Park, as the location for its new showroom.

The highlight of Lyon & Turnbull’s sale of Scottish Silver & Applied Arts on August 16 was a Jacobite drinking glass with a difference.

The British Museum’s big summer exhibition on Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai is over, but more art from the Land of the Rising Sun is in the offing (also see International Events, ATG No 2305).

August is traditionally the month when most of the auction world takes a breather. But in Scotland, where well-heeled holiday-makers tread, there is no let-up.

Sensational results for Scottish author in Lyon & Turnbull sale recall a doomed family link...

“It was one of those eureka moments,” said Rosemary Scott, Chinese ceramics specialist at Christie’s. “My colleague Jeremy Morgan was on a perfectly normal valuation visit when he walked into the drawing room and there, on the mantelpiece, he saw these vases. He couldn’t believe his eyes.”

Three substantial sales from Edinburgh to Exeter via Doncaster last month confirmed the promise of early spring with the staple areas of furniture, silver and ceramics holding up and, for named or specialist-interest material, doing well. The figures underline the overall buoyancy.

Victorian exuberance or Georgian elegance – you pays your money and takes your choice. At Lyon & Turnbull (25% buyer’s premium) on April 5, it cost a great deal for the former and rather less for the latter.

Johannes Schröder (1870-1942) was not only a wealthy German merchant but also a globetrotter and a pioneer in utilising the invention of photography to document his time.

Dealer on a mission to establish such works alongside more ‘serious’ collecting fields