Auctioneers

The show stopper at Christie’s Indian and Southeast auction on October 17 was this sublime grey schist Gandharan bodhisattva, 2/3rd century. The drapes of the robes falling about his body contrast with his powerfully carved bare chest, as he stands gazing ahead with a fixed stare.

THE last week of September saw Phillips host two offerings of toys, dolls, bears and collectables at their Edinburgh and Knowle regional salerooms. Both auctions had a healthy 75 per cent take-up with the larger 1129-lot Solihull auction totalling £116,691 against the £61,660 taken by the 345-lots offered at Edinburgh.

THE first sale by the Staffordshire-based auctioneers Wintertons to be held at Bakewell’s Agricultural Business Centre in neighbouring Derbyshire was a wide-ranging 639-lot event which attracted trade and private buyers from across the country and even some overseas interest in the telephone and on the book.

The most hotly contested property in Christie’s 335-lot Japanese and Korean sale on October 15 was a selection of Korean art from the Falk collection. Just over half of the reasonably estimated 55 Korean entries hailed from this New York collection, that attracted new American buyers as well as regular European privates and dealers.

As every silver dealer knows, the value of standard Victorian three-piece tea sets has gone down, not up, over the past decade. But introduce a fashionable style to the casting, and the price will inevitably soar.

WHILE it was worrying that Phillips’ main Midlands saleroom could find only 100 furniture lots worthy of their main autumn sale, and that only five of those took more than £3000, such is the drought of quality goods in the provinces at the moment that the trade were determined to make the best of any opportunity.

Two rather different toy sales went under the hammer early last month. October 4 saw Christie’s South Kensington (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) put some 465 lots predominantly devoted to dolls under the hammer while six days later Bonhams & Brooks (15/10% buyer’s premium) offered an even bigger, more general 630-lot mix of playthings ranging from Dinkys and lead figures to dolls, soft toys and tinplate.

FRANCE: After a long and frustrating delay, Sotheby’s and Christie’s finally got the official go-ahead late last week to conduct auctions in France. They were among the first four auction houses to receive a licence from the French Conseil des Ventes on October 25 and both houses swiftly announced details of their inaugural sales to be held later this year.

Christie’s will close their office and saleroom in Athens on November 30, with the loss of all seven staff. The company is also shutting offices in Oslo, Stockholm, Frankfurt and Copenhagen, with the loss of at least 12 administrative staff, with further office closures expected in Asia and America by the end of the year.

THE acceptance that silver has long lost its shine does not mean that there is no active market, just that prices are lower. After this sale of 340 lots at Phillips’ Midlands operation on 19 September the familiar picture emerged of modern pieces struggling, standard material chugging along and items with appeal beyond the metal doing rather well.

Like English haggis and Scotch rarebit, the idea of Welsh Whisky is somewhat dubious. A few years ago a Welsh bottling company began to market a product called Welsh Whisky, which won praise from American connoisseurs but was just Scotch whisky in disguise.The company subsequently ceased trading.

The market continued to favour top-quality fresh-to-the-market works at the expense of lower-end entries at Phillips (15/10% buyer’s premium) antique and modern jewellery sale on October 10.

Sotheby’s (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) move to Olympia was accompanied by a rethink of auction selling categories. Their general ceramic and glass sales have been split into smaller specialised European ceramics, British ceramics and glass auctions each to be held tri-annually at Olympia.

Job lots in local sales that are not widely advertised can sometimes yield the greatest bargains. As such, this William III oval silver spice box, right, was the treasure acquired with the detritus of a job lot by a local dealer at a Nottinghamshire auction for just £12.

SOTHEBYS.COM are offering a rare portrait by Frederick Lord Leighton, which has been discovered in the estate of a collector from Indiana in the United States.

Like most provincial auctioneers, Christopher Ewbank was rather apprehensive of the market prior to his October sale on 4 October at Send. “I was relieved really,” said Mr Ewbank after the sale where attendance was strong and the “furniture dealers were still out in force”.

IT wasn’t the most promising opener to the season – a shadow of recession over Britain and as expected, a complete absence of American buyers – so the success at the Halls Welsh Bridge rooms on 21 September was all the more notable.

One of the prettier pieces among the 300 jewellery and silver lots put up at Edinburgh by Phillips (15/10% buyer’s premium) on September 21 was this diamond, rock crystal and nephret lily-of-the-valley brooch, right. Estimated at up to £1000, it sold at £1500.

Fresh quality stock may be thin on the ground at present, but the early 19th century mahogany sideboard and the mid-18th century oak dresser, pictured, which provided the single highlights of their respective sales, were proof that hope should not yet be abandoned.

THE trade’s fears that the events of September 11 would usher in the long expected recession with a collapse in international bidding were allayed here in Herefordshire at Brightwells on 12-13 September.