Tennants

A number of ivories closed the Oriental ceramics section at Tennants’ sale with some memorable results. A 143/4in (37.5cm) double-handled basket and cover from Canton c.1860, carved with phoenixes and figures in pavilions, made a five-times estimate £2500 and more surprises came among ten Japanese ivories such as an 81/2in (22cm) one-piece carving of a farmer looking at an empty pumpkin cage, a cicada on his head, which made £4000 against printed expectations of £500-700.

FOLLOWING the tragic death of John Ball in an accident last year, the future of his auction firm Heathcote Ball has been secured in a deal with Tennants.

ONE of the most bizarre and unexpected results at Tennants’ sale in North Yorkshire on 21-22 December involved a collection of more than 200 19th century marbles, a selection of which are shown right.

THE jewellery and vertu at Tennants’ sale was led by a pair of 2ct diamond ear studs at £9200 but more eye-catching among the vertu was this forerunner of the Swiss Army knife, right.

THE best seller at Tennants’ sale on November 22-23 in the Yorkshire Dales was consigned by a Yorkshire family with connections to the famous silversmith who made it.

THE Top lot in this North Yorkshire sale at Tennants on 18 October appeared very early on in the proceedings, when, as part of the opening art and architecture section of the sale, a copy of Humphrey Repton’s Sketches and Hints on Landscape Gardening was sold for £6000.

There are some who think that the people who collect the cat paintings of Louis Wain (1860-1939) are as mentally unbalanced as the artistic imagination that created them, but there is no gainsaying the extraordinary prices that Wain continues to fetch in the salerooms.

There was the familiar wide mix and flash of quality at this Dales auctioneers’ weekly sale, where the top price came from a piece over the Pennines – an 18th century yew wood dresser base that had originally graced a pub in Blackpool.

UK: TURNOVER figures posted by provincial auctioneers for the year January to December 1999 revealed a turnaround in the positions of the top two firms.