Auctions

One of Ireland’s leading provincial auction houses, Mealy’s Fine Art of Castlecomer, County Kilkenny, has ceased trading after 84 years.

A trio of works in regional auctions which sold under £800.

Illustrated with coloured engravings, The History of Sixteen Wonderful Old Women is a work of 1821 that is “thought to be the first printed book of Limericks”.

Private bidders were overtaken as dealers found warmth in the best traditional furniture and chattels offered at auction.

A selection of fine or unusual bindings seen at auction during the summer months will feature more prominently in a future issue, but shown here is a 1751 first of Thomas Gray’s An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard in a striking later binding that was among lots offered at Chiswick Auctions (25/12% buyer’s premium) on July 12.

A selection of highlights from the Chorley's auction on July 24-25 and the Tennants sale on July 21 (also see main Auction Reports story this edition).

Sold at £620 in a July 2 sale held by Hansons (20% buyer’s premium) was a leather-bound promotional catalogue issued by the Walturdaw Cinema Supply Co of Birmingham.

Part of the intake for a general sale, a terracotta sculpture by a protégé of Antonio Canova sold for £21,000 (plus premium) at Reeman Dansie in Colchester.

A small but enigmatic study attributed to Victorian artist Matthew Ridley Corbet (1850-1902) drew dramatic competition at John Nicholson’s in Fernhurst, Surrey.

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period July 19-August 1 2018. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

On the day that the Bastille was stormed Louis XVI famously recorded “rien” (nothing) in his game book.

One of the earlier big attractions of the new season will be the September 18-19 auction at Sotheby’s of the Erwin Tomash library on the history of computing.

Two French corkscrews were the top lots of Henry Aldridge & Son’s auction of the first tranche of a single-owner collection of around 450 examples.