Auctions

News and previews of art and antiques sold at auctions throughout the UK and overseas, from multi-million-pound blockbusters to affordable collectables.


Smallest penknife

Is this the world’s smallest penknife?

30 August 2023

This tiny opening pocketknife is about the size of a 1p coin.

Franklin daguerreotypes

Rediscovered images of the crew of Franklin's lost expedition come to auction next month

29 August 2023

Rare daguerreotype photographs of Sir John Franklin and his fellow senior officers of the ill-fated HMS Erebus and Terror have been rediscovered and will be offered at auction by Sotheby’s.

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Earthly pleasures: Avisseau's basin draws dramatic bidding at Strawser’s auction

28 August 2023

This Palissy-style ‘art of the earth’ basin is inscribed and dated 'Avisseau, Tours, 1856' for Charles-Jean Avisseau (1795-1861).

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Pick of the week: Lessons pointed the poor towards job skills

28 August 2023

Well known for pottery, Sally Tuffin (b.1938) is also renowned for pioneering 1960s fashion as part of the Foale and Tuffin firm.

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Charlotte Brontë looks back to her days as Currer Bell

28 August 2023

A wistful and chatty letter from Charlotte Brontë to her editor William S Williams comes for sale in California on September 7.

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A Victorian coffee maker and a racing pigeon picture are among five lots to watch

28 August 2023

With estimates from £300, here are five previews of items coming up at auction this week.

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Bid Barometer: issue 2607

28 August 2023

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

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Raise your Jacobite drinking glass to toast the Old and Young Pretenders

28 August 2023

A group of just over 20 lots of Jacobite drinking glasses from the 18th century featured in a sale of Scottish Works of Art and Whisky held in Edinburgh.

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Doulton jug does its Nelson duty

28 August 2023

The salt-glazed portrait jug of Nelson by Doulton & Watts of Lambeth is considered the first character jug made by Doulton

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Claret jug on an Odyssey

28 August 2023

This elegant Victorian clear glass claret jug of neoclassical design featured in the July 27 sale at Kinghams (25/18/15% buyer’s premium).

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Classic goblet takes £4000

28 August 2023

Included in Mellors & Kirk’s (24% buyer’s premium) July 18-20 sale in Nottingham was this classic baluster goblet dated to the 18th century.

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Eurich’s mystery girl makes notable price

28 August 2023

The artist Richard Ernst Eurich (1903-92) is rather hard to categorise.

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Wine bottle pays tribute to a Wedgwood

28 August 2023

An 18th century wine bottle honouring Thomas Wedgwood, a key figure in the history of the Wedgwood factory, comes for sale in Derbyshire this autumn.

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If at first you don’t succeed, try a new estimate

28 August 2023

What’s best to do with unsold lots… offer them again at half the price guide perhaps?

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What’s your poison? Auction lots show bottles evolved for safety reasons

28 August 2023

Bottles with fatal content had to be specially designed and coloured to avoid a nasty accident

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Dutch lot bowls over bidders

28 August 2023

This 12in (30.5cm) diameter Dutch delft bowl was a high-flyer at Rob Michiels (30% buyer’s premium inc VAT) in Bruges.

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A Duncan Grant market tester

28 August 2023

Testing the market for still-lifes by Bloomsbury school favourite Duncan Grant (1885-1978), a painting by the artist emerged fresh from a notable source in Somerset.

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Desirable Doulton: inkwells and ashtray

28 August 2023

The most eagerly contested lot in a recent sale at Potteries Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) was a Doulton stoneware Isobath inkwell.

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Sale underlines stateside popularity of Wedgwood

28 August 2023

Wedgwood has long been such a popular collecting strand in the US that it is no surprise to see quantities reappear on the market at auction, either as mixed-owner consignments or single-owner collections

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Bidders just dig the Mary Potter style

28 August 2023

Coastal scene formerly owned by collector in the diamond mining industry attracts considerable interest

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