Auctions

THE March 5 sale at Dee Atkinson & Harrison's (10% buyer's premium) West Yorkshire saleroom was the first antiques offering of the year and, after an 83 per cent selling rate on nearly 700 lots, the auctioneers took encouragement from the way the market seemed to be picking up, with furniture, at last, edging out of the doldrums.

THERE was no doubt about which were the two outstanding lots at Hamptons’ (15% buyer’s premium) March 24 picture sale in Godalming.

UNLIKE the market for oil paintings, where traditional images appear to be going through something of a mini-revival, print auctions show signs of being a sector where the critical mass of demand has shifted permanently towards Modern and Contemporary.

ONE notable item from the Bonhams & Butterfields sale of March 23 was a rare copy of Jacques Gautier d’Agoty’s colour printed Anatomie de la Tête of 1748 that made $19,000 (£10,220) – but not the top price lot, a Gershwin sketchbook that made $100,000, or indeed several other interesting items.

SPRING may not seem the optimum time to be selling rocking horses but two Victorian-style examples did well at the March 4 sale held by Hobbs & Parker (10% buyer’s premium) at Ashford, Kent.

THERE was some erratic bidding for the pictures which dominated Belgian auctions in March.

IN these days of global marketing and online bidding it is reassuring to know that, just occasionally, with some wit and a little good fortune, one can still make a good wage from a solitary find at the local auction room.

Right: this Morris & Co. tapestry titled Greenery sold for £180,000 (plus 17.5/10 per cent buyer’s premium) at Edinburgh auctioneers Lyon and Turnbull on April 21. The outstanding lot of the firm’s Decorative Arts sale was sold to a buyer from the London area, who said: “I fell in love with it the moment I saw it and just had to have it, it is a beautiful thing and worth every penny.”

BONHAMS notched up a clutch of auction records and an impressive £1.28m total for the Albion Collection of portrait miniatures in Bond Street on April 22.

THIS Saturday (May 1) Thomson Roddick & Medcalf will be selling the entire stock-in-trade of Edinburgh restorer and cabinetmaker William Trist at its Esbank saleroom.

Though the catalogue did contain a selection of antiquarian and collectable books of a general nature, the March 31 sale held by Hampton & Littlewood of Exeter was notable for two specialised collections – the Ron Morris collection of magic lanterns, optical toys and related books and ephemera, and the collection of costume and fashion books formed by the late Janet Hill.

A CLUTCH of strong horological results for rare pieces by good makers or with technical innovations were seen in late March at Sotheby’s Bond Street (20/12% buyer’s premium).

ON Radio Four’s Desert Island Discs of April 28 the castaway was painter Jack Vettriano (b. 1954). When asked by presenter Sue Lawley how much he thought his celebrated oil, The Singing Butler, would sell for at Sotheby’s on April 19, Vettriano’s response was that it would exceed the top estimate of £200,000.

It is not unusual for an auctioneer to receive enquiries from members of the public who have seen items ‘identical’ to theirs in a newspaper, a magazine or on television. In reality the Queen Anne walnut chest turns out to be a 1920s reproduction worth £100 – but, yes, they do look almost identical.

With the Chinese economy expanding at an unprecedented rate, and Chinese tourists becoming increasingly numerous in Europe, China Trade paintings are an area of the art market that might prove a cannier investment than most.

QUALITY, rarity, condition, provenance and fashion all have a bearing on auction prices, but perhaps the most difficult criterion for any specialist to value is the appeal of an object’s quirkiness.

THE chances of finding good-quality tribal material in the remoter parts of Cumbria may be slim but a local vendor furnished Mitchells' (15% buyer's premium) 1294-lot March 4-5 outing with a 19th century African carved wooden headrest.

The perennial and international popularity of the radially expanding dining table was underlined in South Africa when Stephan Welz & Co (in association with Sotheby’s) sold this William IV circular extending dining table by Johnstone, Jupe and Co for R950,000 (£84,820), plus 10 per cent premium, in Cape Town on March 30.

ONCE the rustic Cinderella of the antiques trade, but proving to have more solid staying power than some other fashions, the strength of the oak furniture market was evident at Brightwells' (15% buyer's premium) 139-lot single-owner Herefordshire outing on March 18.

THE importance of colour to collectors of saltglaze ceramics was emphasised at BBR's (10% buyer's premium) March 7 500-lot specialist sale near Barnsley when the orangey-brown hue and unusual subject matter made an Ugly Woman saltglazed inkwell one of the most desirable entries.