Mellors & Kirk

With estimates from £50 to £25,000, here are five previews from upcoming sales this week.

ATG’s selection of hammer highlights over the past week include a piece by the ‘crystal king of England’, a Japanese style sword, a vodka-drinking Russian figure and a Renaissance revival ewer.

From a spy camera and royal rosewood chairs to a Shakespeare pendant, here are five previews from upcoming sales this week.

A rediscovered Augustus John (1878-1961) pencil drawing of his friend Jacob Epstein sold for £80,000 at Mellors & Kirk in Nottingham.

This James II or William and Mary silver-gilt travelling set c.1690 was among the exceptional pieces of English silver sold at the latest sale held by Mellors & Kirk of Nottingham.

A large depiction of a magician commanded significant attention at Mellors & Kirk’s sale in Nottingham earlier today.

Mellors and Kirk of Nottingham included a watercolour by Walter Langley (1852-1922) in their fine art sale on September 20-21.

WHILE London auctions saw a 25% rise in value for 2011, sales outside the capital have also been growing.

THIS pair of Irish George III mahogany and brass-bound peat buckets drew multiple bidders at Mellors & Kirk's two-day auction in Nottingham on April 30-May 1.

Photo from 1866 rescued from the attic sells in Nottingham...

As celebrations abound for the most famous of all seamen, another great British admiral was being remembered in spectacular fashion at the Nottingham auction rooms of Mellors & Kirk on June 16. The subject of a fierce engagement between collectors was the so-called Rodney Jug.

On a day when some unusual offerings caught the eye at the Nottingham sale held by Mellors & Kirk, one such lot was a set of 36 Anglo-Indian Company School Delhi or Agra oval miniatures dating to 1827 and depicting India’s nobility and their wives, six of whom are shown right.

THE received wisdom of the art market tells us that heavily restored paintings attract little demand from the trade at auction. But sometimes a subject is just too commercial for dealers to pass by, such as this Arthur Wardle (1864-1947) canvas, right, of four terrier puppies, Mischief in Quadruplet, which came up for sale at the Nottingham rooms of Mellors & Kirk (15% buyer’s premium) back on April 23.

LONG before Heineken, Allsopp & Sons’ Burton ale had a claim to be the beer which reached the parts other beers could not reach – bottles of it accompanied Sir George Strong Nares’ expedition attempting to reach the South Pole in 1875.

THE inscription Wilkes And Liberty No. 45 on this 9in (23cm) diameter Lambeth delftware portrait plate is as good as a date as it refers to the publication of the 45th issue of John Wilkes’ sharp-tongued periodical The North Briton.