Auctions

Two micro-mosaic pictures took a six-figure sum at a Cirencester saleroom – 10-times their low estimate.

Emile Berliner (1851-1921), a German clerk in a Washington DC haberdashery, is credited with inventing both the first commercially successful disc record and the first machine to play it.

The top two UK auction houses have announced a string of high-profile consignments coming to auction in the autumn/winter season.

An archive of very early photography is to be offered at auction in the US next month.

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.

Christopher Dresser (1834-1904) designed two electroplated claret or water jugs for Elkington & Co of Birmingham in 1885 – both of them daring designs inspired by vessels from antiquity.

It has been a busy season for ornithological favourite Archibald Thorburn (1860-1935) with a number of quality pictures previously sold by leading dealers reappearing at auction and attracting keen interest.

Though the matching bindings were much later ones commissioned by London dealer Sotherans, a set of Charles Dickens’ five famous Christmas Books offered on August 28 by Potter & Potter (20% buyer’s premium) of Chicago were all firsts of 1843-48, and in some instances first issue or first state copies.

Given that most antique furniture at auction tends to be good value only for the buyer these days, one can perhaps understand why it occasionally does not always receive the attention it once merited from auctioneers and valuers. As a result, occasionally a special item slips through.

Among the Charles Tunnicliffe works drawing the most attention at Halls’ sale on September 15 (see main story) were pictures bought by the vendor directly from the artist’s family, with whom they were acquainted.

A portrait of the composer Claude Debussy painted by the French artist Jacques-Emile Blanche (1861-1942) met with a flurry of phone bids when it came up for sale on October 12 in Paris.

Illustrated from drawings made by William Gibb, printed under his supervision and signed by the author, George Petree, one of 16 special copies of Dundee, its Quaint and Historic Old Buildings that were printed on Japanese paper in 1895 made a far higher than expected result at auction.

It was not to high-end purist tastes, but ballet pioneer’s collection reeled in eager bidders

This 19th century China Trade painting was a highlight of the sale held by Ivoire Besançon (22% buyer’s premium) in France on October 17.

Aided by strong American bidding action, the collection of Andrew Crawforth, the late Portobello Road trader and leading authority on early metalware, turned base metal into gold when all 431 lots – offered wihtout reserve – sold at Bonhams’ (27.5% buyer’s premium) Edinburgh sale.

Stand-out cartographic lots sold in Gloucestershire include a string of early rarities

Equestrian works by the British artist shine as ‘English country house meets Californian chic’

Excellent selection of the artist’s wildlife works had been wrapped up and kept pristine.