Auctions

Pieces with a maritime slant proved popular at the sale at Cowes held by HRD Auction Rooms (15% buyer’s premium) on August 3 during the yacht-fest that is Cowes Week on the Isle of Wight.

Three names prized by collectors helped this 19th century German train set, pictured, to top the 330 lots of toys and railwayana offered at the David Duggleby (20% buyer’s premium) sale at Scarborough on August 12.

Fine examples of John Sell Cotman’s (1782-1842) draftsmanship appeared at separate auctions in the south of England.

A Song dynasty brush washer, one of the few examples of Ru guanyao court ware still in private hands, will be offered by Sotheby’s Hong Kong with an estimate in excess of HK$100m on October 3.

Provincial sales throughout the summer were enlivened by big-money Chinese material but a more concentrated look at the market was afforded by the dedicated sale at Roseberys (20% buyer’s premium) on June 27.

A raft of contemporary and post-war art featured in the busy August schedule in Scotland. Such art remains a picky and tempestuous market north of the border. The latest results were scattered with a mix of bullish and more subdued results.

Offered as a job lot, these 2¾in (7cm) tall Chinese cloisonné stemmed cups and tea bowl pictured here were entered into the August 15 sale at Stamford auction house Batemans (20% buyer’s premium) by a private vendor content with the £50-70 estimate.

Militaria has the advantage of a wide price range for items. A photograph sold in Cirencester on July 7 was a good example of ‘more affordable’ levels.

Eight fine bindings are the focus of this report, which draws mainly on sales held in the UK and US in the summer months – but also includes one to come in the new season sales.

Music, in printed editions rather than autograph scores, played a significant part in raising a premium-inclusive €1.65m (£1.45m) for the third portion of the Pierre Bergé library to come to auction.

Pictured here is 'Fanny was obliged to introduce him to Mr Crawford’, an ink and watercolour version of an illustration made by Hugh Thomson for an 1897 Macmillan edition of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park.

After a summer break, the next auction session at Duran Subastas in Madrid on September 21 will feature a special section of 33 lots of Ethiopian art, including intricately decorated wooden crucifixes, bibles, paintings and thrones, all coming to auction from a private collection.

Made in various materials across the centuries, brush pots used by Chinese scholars are steady favourites at UK auctions and the blue and white porcelain example shown here was no exception when offered at Thomas Watson’s (17.5% buyer’s premium) sale at Darlington on June 20.

It’s late August and the art market continues its summer slumber.

Tentatively catalogued as ‘18th-19th century German, possibly Meissen’, a porcelain figure of the Quack Doctor from the Cryes of London series was the surprise tonic at Reeman Dansie’s (20% buyer’s premium) August 1 Colchester sale.

Security shouldn’t be too much of a problem when opening a gallery space if one of your new neighbours is a former prime minister protected by armed guards. But aside from Tony Blair’s London residence down the road, Lyon & Turnbull had plenty of its own reasons for choosing Connaught Street, just north of Hyde Park, as the location for its new showroom.

Seven phone bidders competed for this 15th century gold heart-shaped brooch, a medieval gift of love from the time of the Wars of the Roses, at Hansons in Derbyshire.

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period August 17-23, 2017. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

Large-scale paintings of intimate domestic scenes are unusual in Chinese art. The Chinese export reverse-painted glass painting of a young mother nursing her infant son offered at Northeast Auctions in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, earlier this month is thought to be one of only a handful of full-size versions painted of this once popular image.

Sir Stanley Matthews’ first football contract showing the legend was paid a princely £5 a week has sold at Derbyshire saleroom Hansons.