Sworders

A Chinese Jiaqing (1795-1820) vase led Sworders’ recent Asian art sale with a five-figure result despite imperfect condition.

A rare and recently rediscovered Irish Commonwealth/Charles II silver porringer sold today for £25,000 – five times its estimate – at Sworders’ auction in Essex.

The UK’s regional salerooms turned up a series of six-figure objects during the first of two weeks of designated Asian art sales.

Only a handful of pieces of Irish secular silver are known to survive from before the Restoration.

When in the middle of the century Suffolk collector Hugh Marsham Townshend (1878-1967) was amassing a collection of gold-mounted porcelain scent bottles and other trinkets, most were thought to be the products of the Chelsea porcelain works or a shadowy enterprise known as the ‘Girl in a Swing’ factory.

Fellows’ second Designer Collection sale fetched over £100,000. With a Hermès Birkin 35 taking the top spot, it seems the current trend for classic fashions and accessories at auction is here to stay.

Among the works sold over estimate at today’s silver and jewellery auction at Sworders in Stansted Mountfitchet was a rare silver-gilt three-piece teaset that tripled expectations when it was knocked down at £4100.

In the space of just 48 hours, two paintings by the self-taught Welsh artist and horticulturalist Cedric Morris (1889-1982) raised the auction bar for his work to a new level.

A watercolour by Eric Ravilious (1903-1942) drew serious bidding at Sworders this week, overtaking a £40,000-60,000 estimate before it was knocked down at £85,000.

An Eric Ravilious (1903-42) watercolour has emerged at Sworders of Essex and will be among the star lots at their first dedicated Modern British Art sale next month.

Paul César Helleu (1859-1927) is best known for his Belle Epoque portraits of beautiful society women.

A growing market for silver from the sub-continent culminated in a bid of £11,500 for this 9in (23cm) early 20th century Burmese bowl by Maung Yin Maung of Rangoon.