Auctions

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

One of the rarest of all of the 31 car mascots made by Lalique between 1925-31 came up for auction at Kinghams in the Cotswolds.

A rare Georgian print on a sporting theme was offered by Northumberland auction house.

Remarkable sums were paid for vintage video games at Heritage Auctions – including a record-breaking $1.35m (£1m) bid for Super Mario 64.

A sale at Wilson55 (22% buyer’s premium) in Nantwich this month was topped at £22,000 by an 18th century Flemish ebony and tortoiseshell veneered cabinet.

The prize lot sold at a recent Hermann Historica (25% buyer’s premium) sale in Munich was this 19th century Ottoman kilij of characteristic form with a curved blade swelling towards the tip.

A quintessential example of avant-garde Art Deco jewellery by a French designer who was renowned for such modernist pieces was the toast of Christie’s (25/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) online Jewellery sale in Paris which closed on July 7.

The outstanding lot in the arms and armour sale held in London on June 30 by Thomas Del Mar (25% buyer’s premium) was the £96,000 16th century Augsburg close helmet illustrated on the front page of last week’s ATG (No 2501).

A recent sale at Bentley’s (19% buyer’s premium) in Cranbrook, Kent included a rare US Presidential lifesaving medallion.

The British artist John Glover (1767- 1849) would doubtless have faded into relative obscurity had he not chosen, in 1831, to make a new life in colonial Australia. He ended up being dubbed ‘the father of Australian landscape painting’.

Among the properties included in the June Thomas Del Mar sale was the McEwen collection of bows and associated items which proved unexpectedly popular raising £30,000, around four times its top estimate.

The price gulf that once existed between good 18th century French furniture and very good late 19th century revivalism is no longer visible at auction. A quality reproduction can often outsell its period exemplar.

What is known as Indo-Chinese art frequently comes up for auction in France, in part because this area of south-east Asia was formerly a French colony.

Two rare and evocative paintings depicting a 19th century ironworks in South Wales were hotly contested at a recent Dreweatts (25% buyer’s premium) sale.

Three pistol lots came to the fore at a recent sale at Bonhams (27.5/25/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) in London.

The vast majority of cushion-moulded mirrors from the late 17th century have lost their original cresting, which was both flamboyant and fragile.

ATG’s pick of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com, including both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.