Auctions

IF pearls reached the peak of their popularity in antiquity, when the Roman general Vitellius is said to have financed an entire military campaign by selling just one of his mother’s pearl earrings, then the market in 2012 does not rest too far behind.

A rare Märklin ‘first series’ tinplate toy ’HMS Terrible’ was the jewel in the Ron McCrindell collection sold by Special Auction Services of Greenham, near Newbury, on April 20.

STUDENTS from West Dean College near Chichester will offer their work at auction to raise funds to supplement the college’s bursary and scholarship schemes.

BALDWIN’S are to sell the most complete collection of British gold sovereigns, formed over 34 years, with the first tranche being offered on May 8 in London.

THE first corkscrew model designed by Robert Jones and Son of Cheapside, Birmingham in 1840, distinctive for a narrow barrel and a single spike, can usually be bought for around £1000.

IT was a case of ‘last but not least’ at Bonhams’ latest prints sale in New Bond Street.

A UNIQUE Falklands War medal marking the ‘phenomenally brave’ work of a bomb disposal expert has sold for what is believed to be a record price at auction.

IT was the five o’clock shadow that gave it away. When London dealer Philip Mould spotted this 18th century portrait in a general paintings sale at the New York auctioneers Thomas Cornell Galleries in November last year, he thought it to be of a rather masculine middle-aged lady.

JUBILEE Antiques & Art Auction will become the first Chinese auction house to conduct sales in the West when they hold an auction of Asian works of art at the Bloomsbury Hotel on May 12.

SOTHEBY’S concluded their latest Hong Kong series of sales on April 4, raising a premium-inclusive total of over HK$2.46bn (£212.5m) for the eight sales containing over 2780 lots.

ENTERED for sale by a descendent of the family for whom it was made, this carved wood and painted plaster model of an East End butcher’s shop sold for £22,000 at Woolley & Wallis of Salisbury.

BY the early decades of the 19th century it was clear that the ancient and cosmopolitan game of chess would require pieces of standardised size and shape as it entered the era of international competition.

WHILE London auctions saw a 25% rise in value for 2011, sales outside the capital have also been growing.

THIS large, 18in (45cm) high, London-made brass lantern clock, c.1660, proved the highlight of the recent single-owner estate sale conducted by Durrants of Beccles.

CHRISTIE’S South Kensington has been forced to postpone their sale of the Raglan Collection at the 11th hour after a legal dispute over the estate resulted in a court injunction.

IN February we revealed how Queen Victoria was an accomplished artist, but now her daughter’s skills have been highlighted by a Surrey auction.

WHEN the Royal Navy seized an enemy patrol boat in the Falklands War the name of it must have given particular satisfaction at the capture.

NEW York has just seen the greatest dispersal ever of Jewish coins and coins relating to the history of the Jewish people.

A wartime lithograph by C.R.W. Nevinson (1889-1946) promoting Britain’s aerial prowess made a record price for a print by the artist at Sotheby’s latest sale in this category.

AUCTIONEER Martin Lawrence of Petersfield firm Jacobs & Hunt was not expecting much when asked to conduct a probate valuation in a top-floor council flat in a rundown part of Southsea.