Auctions

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.

Few lots in the Design since 1860 sale held by Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh were more admired than a series of Art Nouveau pencil and watercolour jewellery drawings by Frances Macdonald McNair (1873-1921).

Estimated at £200-300, this kaskara sold for £8200 at Dawsons (23% buyer’s premium) in Maidenhead on October 28.

Library on offer at Forum auction in London was based on works collected by a man whose roles ranged from alchemist to diplomat

On December 2, as part of its So Unique series launched in April, Millon holding a single-lot sale in Paris of a painting by the Italian artist Domenico Gnoli (1933-70) which has been in a private collection for over 45 years.

In ATG No 2502 we mentioned silver dealer Mark Nelson-Griffiths, who stands at a number of fairs countrywide including the Peterborough Festival of Antiques, Lomax Fairs in Southwold, IACF Alexandra Palace and Aztec Events at the Norfolk Showground.

Leering 4ft 7in (1.4m) out from the saleroom wall and with a 4ft 2in (50cm) antlers spread, a massive taxidermy moose head and shoulders was the major trophy at the best-yet biannual Country and Sporting sale at Mitchells (22% buyer’s premium).

A group of sleek Deco furnishings designed in the 1930s by Eugène Printz (1879-1948) for a villa in Casablanca went under the hammer at Briscadieu (23% buyer’s premium inc VAT) in Bordeaux.

Rounding off the Wedgwood section of Skinner’s December 3 auction of European Furniture and Decorative Arts is a small selection of Fairyland lustre ware.

The windmill cup was the most popular of the novelty silver wager cups produced from the late 16th century until the early 18th century.

Top names in their different fields, ages and markets, Wurlitzer and Armand Marseilles were the star makers at Hartleys (17.5% buyer’s premium).

The Spanish woollen rug illustrated here was pitched at £100-200 in Mallams’ (25% buyer’s premium) Abingdon rooms on October 18.

A collection of silver assembled over half a century by a Brussels general practitioner with a passion for 18th century French silver is to be offered for sale by Dupont & Associés, Morlaix Enchères, at Drouot in Paris on December 6.

In a recent Financial Times article titled 'Dangerous baubles for boys', historian and style journalist Nick Foulkes commented that a friend had “described my hands as looking like a cabinet of curiosities trying to emulate a pair of knuckledusters”.

As very personal items, typically weighing little more than an ounce of bullion, the most numerous silver survivors from the 17th century are spoons.

In demand at home and abroad during his lifetime, the eminent miniaturist John Smart was an international draw at a trio of sales.

Running to just 20 or so words, a tiny signed card in which Abraham Lincoln instructs Edwin Stanton to meet with the African-American abolitionist and officer Martin Delany in Washington led the bidding at Doyle (26/21/15% buyer’s premium) on September 23.

A selection of 15 upcoming lots from auctions taking place around the UK.

This Charles II silver mounted coconut cup is particularly rare on account of its marks for the Hull silversmith Edward Mangie (1634-85).

Now handsomely bound in full red morocco and contained in slipcases, a set of first-edition copies of what are collectively known as ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ of CS Lewis led a Thomson Roddick (18% buyer’s premium) sale of October 7 with a bid of £3400 from a buyer on thesaleroom.com.