Auctioneers

On January 30, as part of Old Masters Week, Sotheby’s New York conducts a sale titled The Pleasure of Objects: The Ian & Carolina Irving Collection.

The growth in the market for vintage football tops connected to popular players continues apace

Trapani in western Sicily has for centuries been renowned as a centre for objects mounted with carved coral, a tradition that derives from the nearby coral reefs and reached its height in the 17th and 18th centuries.

It was in the hope of saving on the huge sums spent procuring works of art from abroad that Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV’s minister of finance, began inviting craftsmen to work at the Gobelins royal manufactory on the outskirts of Paris.

The 1970 World Cup was the breakthrough year for Panini.

The magic of the cup helped to sell a sizeable scene showing a Corinthians v Manchester City game offered as part of an extensive selection of works on a football theme which featured at Bonhams (28% buyer’s premium).

A large collection of corkscrews and all things vernacular were major features of the two-day sale held by Wilkinson’s (20% buyer’s premium) in Doncaster.

A copy of a lost painting that has been described as one of the most haunting and poignant depictions of Irish involvement in the First World War attracted a flurry of bids at Clevedon Salerooms (22% buyer’s premium) in Bristol.

In one of the last auctions to take place at Drouot in 2023, a newly discovered portrait by Jean-Honoré Fragonard was pursued to €2.5m (£2.17m) at Boisgirard-Antonini (30% buyer’s premium).

Very much the highest price in a recent sale held by Beaussant Lefèvre (28% buyer’s premium) at Drouot was the €95,000 (£82,610) paid for a rare Gallé glass vase.