Auctions

The name Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805) was mentioned as the possible hand responsible for this unsigned 18th century French charcoal and chalk drawing that leapt from lowly expectations to sell for £320,000 (plus 22.5% buyer’s premium) at Toovey’s of Washington, West Sussex on October 8.

When Ann Ullmann, the daughter of Eric Ravilious (1903-42), visited J.S. Auctions’ newly refurbished salerooms in Banbury in August, she declared herself delighted to see this previously unknown 16 x 20in (41 x 52cm) watercolour, above, by her father for the first time.

Still Life, Vase with Daisies, painted by Vincent van Gogh at the home of his physician Paul Gachet just weeks before he died, carries an estimate of $30m-50m at Sotheby’s New York on November 4. It will be on view in London from October 12-18.

Sotheby's United Kingdom sales have outperformed all other global regions at auction for the year to date, according to figures just released.

169 years after Franklin’s ill-fated 1845-48 attempt to find the western exit to the Northwest Passage, his Third Officer's Arctic Medal has come up for sale just as the Canadian government has announced that one of Franklin’s ships has been located.

Sotheby’s are to offer 400 works in nearly 300 lots by Man Ray on November 15 in Paris. The collection, property of the Man Ray Trust, includes photographs, paintings, drawings, jewellery, objects and film.

The quarterly auction of silver and plated wares held by Fellows in the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter on September 22 included a family collection of eight apostle spoons formed several generations ago.

ALL 49 lots from the Murray Frum collection of Oceanic art found a buyer on September 16 at Sotheby’s (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) in Paris. The hammer total was €6.24m (£5.2m).

Lyon & Turnbull have been forced to postpone the sale of the contents of Bantry House, County Cork because of delays in obtaining a licence from the Property Services Regulatory Authority (PSRA) to hold the sale on the premises. The sale was scheduled to take place on October 21.

The US staged a raft of dedicated Asian auctions in New York salerooms and beyond last week. Top lot as ATG went to press was this 2ft 10½in (88cm) high fencai vase from the Qianlong period with a six-character turquoise Qianlong mark to the base when it sold for $22m (£14.2m) hammer at Skinner (23/20/12% buyer’s premium) in Boston on September 17.

Collector Robin Pinchbeck had never bought a clock before, but when he set his sights on the George I walnut-cased astronomical longcase on offer at Mitchells (17.5% buyer’s premium) of Cockermouth on September 11-12 he knew he simply had to have it.

This silver and labradorite floral necklace designed by Georg Jensen c.1915 sold for $17,000 (£10,970) at a recent auction held by Skinner of Boston.

On March 29, 1833, John Constable gave his daughter Emily a copy of Isaac Watts’s book ‘Songs, Divine and Moral’.

Bonhams of Bond Street are to sell what is perhaps the most significant collection of cameos and intaglios seen on the market for decades.

This memorial design featuring a magnificent peacock resting on a bier and surrounded by myrtle leaves was painted by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones in 1886 following the tragic death of Laura Lyttelton, a friend of the artist who died a few days after giving birth to a son.

The highest denomination note issued by the Bank of England, this £1000 banknote is a rare survivor of a limited run that was cut short as the Nazis tried to destabilise the British economy.

In May actor Michael Sheen starred in a BBC Wales TV adaptation of ‘Under Milk Wood’ and has taken part in several Dylan Thomas tributes in this centenary year of the poet’s birth.

This George III neoclassical style mahogany serving table was entered for sale at Nesbits in Southsea from a church in Portsea to raise funds for repairs. It is thought the table was given to them to replace the altar table destroyed by bomb damage.

When Stephen Drake of Willingham Auctions discovered a 3000-year-old Egyptian coffin cover in a house clearance on the Essex coast, he was amazed.

With the new auction season kicking off in September, plenty of pictures will be going under the hammer over the next few weeks and, naturally, there are a few stars that have come to light across the regions.