Auctions

A group of five 8in (20cm) William de Morgan (1839-1917) tiles drew lively competitive bids at Cuttlestones in Wolverhampton on June 8.

ATG's weekly selection of items on sale at auctions and dealerships.

“I’m enjoying quite a honeymoon period,” said Mark Law, new joint owner of Dreweatts (24% buyer’s premium). He took on the day-to-day running of the Newbury auction house on May 9 ahead of taking over formally with investor partner Gavin Alexander later this summer.

The art and antiques trade associations are preparing to “forge new relationships” with Michael Gove, who has replaced Andrea Leadsom as environment minister in charge of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period June 8-14, 2017. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

ATG's weekly selection of items on sale at auctions and dealerships.

This Chinese gilt-bronze figure of Guandi is the catalogue cover lot for the next auction at Veritas in Lisbon, on June 27-28.

A still-life by Dora Carrington (1893-1932) starred in Mallams’ (20% buyer’s premium) Design & Modern British & Post-War Art sale, selling just shy of the artist’s record.

A tiny 19th century Venetian oil by Frederico del Campo (1837- 1923) went under the hammer for the first time in a century at Catherine Southon (18% buyer’s premium).

The tribal art auction to be held at Drouot by Binoche et Giquello on June 22 features a mix of African and Oceanic artefacts and will include two lots that formerly belonged to the artist Tristran Tzara.

Leading regional salerooms are reaping the rewards of the bullish Modern British art market with more robust results.

ATG's weekly selection of items on sale at auctions and dealerships.

“All art is erotic,” remarked the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, one of art’s great womanisers.

Cleaned, restored and recently rebound in brown buckskin, together with a 1966 reprint, a rare 1495 Venetian first of Avicenna’s Metaphysica made €26,000 (£22,260) in a Reiss & Sohn (18% buyer’s premium) sale. The price was slightly under estimate but a record nonetheless.

On July 13 Boston saleroom Skinner will be offering the Victor & Muriel Polikoff Collection comprising nearly 300 lots of 18th and early 19th century ceramics.

Comprising what amounted to a crowded Regency household, fully and elegantly furnished and inhabited by half a dozen bisque or parian dolls, a c.1820 mahogany dolls’ cabinet was the outstanding offering from C&T Auctioneers (18% buyer’s premium) in Tunbridge Wells.

Led by the 17th century Goan hardwood, ivory and bone tabernacle which took a 100-times-estimate £36,000 from a European bidder (see Pick of the Week, ATG No 2294), a recent sale at Chiswick Auctions (22% buyer's premium) also included a tribute to a quintessential Victorian imperial hero – General Gordon.

The library of William O’Brien, an Irish-born QC and High Court judge in the Victorian era, sold for a premium-inclusive £2.8m at Sotheby’s (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) on June 7.

Written by Judge Advocate David Collins, secretary, close friend and adviser to Governor Arthur Phillip, An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales of 1798-1802 was the last of the so-called ‘First Fleet’ journals to be published.