Sotheby's

Maker, movement, case decoration, provenance, rarity and original condition are the factors that combine to create value in the clock market. Here Richard Fox discusses some of the best examples recently sold at auction with the views of specialists at Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Bonhams

One of the most-represented names in the Fry collection was William Henry Hunt (1790-1864).

Works by Peter De Wint performed well at both Sotheby’s A Fine Line auction on July 7 and the online sale of Old Master and British Works on Paper from July 2-8.

Richard Came was born on New Years’ Eve 1932 in Kabale, the Uganda Protectorate, on the Belgian Congo border. His father was an engineer who worked for the Colonial Service.

Sotheby’s New York is holding an online auction from September 7-13 featuring 50 examples of sculpture from across the world’s continents selected from the longstanding collection of Martin and Faith-Dorian Wright.

British watercolours and drawings amassed by dealer came under the spotlight at two salerooms

Armenian manuscript demolishes estimate to take six figures in London saleroom

Gold wedding rings belonging to poets Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes have been bought by London jeweller Wartski.

After a difficult period because of the pandemic, the latest round of Old Master sales in London returned to some kind of normality.

While Christie’s had by far the top-selling Old Master drawing of the latest series (the £7.5m Leonardo da Vinci drawing of the head of a bear - see ATG No 2501), a good number of other works on paper generated better competition although sold for understandably lower prices.

One of only two known copies of the first edition of the rules of football printed by the world’s first football club came to auction at Sotheby’s on July 21.

Sales figures or 'bilan' for the first half of this year have been released by some auction firms in France.

Set of urban views takes £220,000 in a sale where ornithological works also impressed

Ornate piece of c.1780 furniture from sheikh’s collection heads a sell-out auction

Asian buyers have become the dominant force at the top end of the auction market, according to Christie’s.

The overall performance of the latest London sales of Old Master pictures and ‘important’ works of art was fairly mixed but the auction houses did at least welcome the return of some big-ticket items.

The latest round of Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary art sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s represented the highest overall total for a ‘London’ auction series since before the coronavirus pandemic.

Old Master paintings come up for sale throughout the year in France but the summer season traditionally mounts a number of dedicated auctions in the field.

Sotheby’s Treasures sale on July 6 includes this Dutch silver standing salt by Adam van Vianen (Utrecht, 1621) estimated at £600,000-800,000.