Auctions

THE most topical entry in Clevedon Salerooms (15% buyer's premium) large 1200-lot outing on June 17-18 was a collection of Olympics memorabilia. Entered by descendants of the 1908 gold medal winning water polo player Thomas H. Thould, the group fetched £3300.

TRADITIONAL favourite in the form of a mantel clock led Stride & Son's (15% buyer's premium) 1000-lot July 30 sale but probably more eye-catching were the collectors’ items. The clock, a 19th century mahogany example in a Georgian-style balloon case by London makers Camerer Cuss, went to a Kent buyer at £2300.

EARLIER this year Bloomsbury Book Auctions moved to Mayfair’s Maddox Street and changed their name to the all-embracing Bloomsbury Auctions (17.5/10% buyer’s premium).

INTEREST from UK furniture dealers in these Channel Islands sales may have waned of late, but Martel Maides (15% buyer's premium) reckon they are benefiting from Jersey’s lack of a permanent fine art saleroom (although the annual Bonhams sale at St Helier comes round this month).

COLLECTING fashions come and go, but the redoubtable Marcel Dyf (1899-1995) never seems to be short of admirers. This signed 23 1/4in x 2ft 4in (59 x 71cm) canvas, right, La Courbe de la Rivière, was the lone picture highlight of Dreweatt Neate’s (15% buyer’s premium) August 24 sale in Bristol when it sold to the London trade at £7600 against an estimate of £4000-6000.

When John Norie (d.2003) began his collection back in the 1950s, caddy spoons were not every collector’s cup of tea.

GIVEN Hitler’s order to execute any commando captured during WWII, it was unusual for British special forces to wear much in the way of identification. That goes some way to explaining the rarity of this cloth badge (or formation sign) seen at a postal auction conducted by Bosley’s (15% buyer’s premium) on July 21.

A LOCAL estate provided the Thames Valley firm Bourne End Auction Rooms (12% buyer’s premium) with some fine lots for sale on August 4.

A DOMINIC Winter sale of July 21 included a collection of Victorian bookbindings from the library of the late Dr Nigel Temple.

AUCTIONEERS and dealers in the south east are being warned by police to be alert to a man who has bounced cheques in a succession of salerooms in East Anglia.

PICTURED here are two outstanding pieces of provincial silver sold in the country during August.

THESE two superb pieces of Victorian silver proved flagship lots for two south of England salerooms in July.

IS there currently a better performing area of the ceramics market than Beswick farm animals? Aided by a proliferation of books and guides and an enviably large collecting base that includes a loyal following within a nostalgic farming community, prices have seen some dramatic acceleration in recent years.

SCULPTURE, which accounted for a quarter of Tajan's (20.33% buyer's premium) August 3-4 sale, fared better than the pictures, with two thirds of the 18 lots finding a taker, although Le Créateur, a small Rodin bronze that began proceedings, fell stone dead – bought in at €15,000 against an estimate of €20,000-30,000.

Originality and patina are key factors in the price of oak furniture. Accordingly, it was no surprise to see the trade chase this austere George III elm cricket table at Richard Winterton (12.5% buyer’s premium) of Burton-on-Trent on July 28. Entered by a Birmingham client, the table, with its galleried undertier was in fine original condition with no later adaptations and the timber had acquired a good rich patina. It doubled the pre-sale estimate to bring £950.

WHEN Oscar Wilde left Reading prison, Reggie Turner presented him with the gentleman’s black leather travelling or dressing case, seen right.

THE three-session, 630-lot jewellery section of Tajan's (20.33% buyer's premium) August 3-4 sale, with a chirpy attendance of 80-100 throughout, met a more convincing response than the Modern art, bringing €2.7m (£1.8m) hammer, including an aftersale €145,000 (£96,670) for a grey-gold ring with a fancy yellow, rectangular 29.57-carat diamond (estimate €200,000-250,000).

THIS exquisite George III silver gilt inkstand, right, by John Houle was commissioned for the phenomenally wealthy William Harry Vane (1766-1842), the first Duke of Cleveland, whose estate and personal assets were valued well in excess of £2m.

SPECIALIST auctioneers, Ocean Liner Auctions have been instructed to sell what they consider to be the largest and finest collection of fixtures and fittings from RMS Olympic since the vessel was broken up almost 69 years ago.

FOR four generations, and more than 150 years, the Stinton family of porcelain painters were represented at the Worcester factories.