Auctions
News and previews of art and antiques sold at auctions throughout the UK and overseas, from multi-million-pound blockbusters to affordable collectables.
Star Wars figures make £8720 at Vectis
19 August 2003Working in a newsagent’s shop in Flint, Wales, a generous grandmother decided to buy her grandson a complete set of the five-inch tall Star Wars figures when they originally came onto the market in 1977. She bought one complete set for her grandson to play with but kept a second set back in case any of the figures became lost, hiding the toys away in a cupboard where they remained for more than 25 years.
Today, even Ireland has its struggles...
19 August 2003£36,000 private bid on cabinet shows underlying market strength: BRITISH auctioneers have long looked enviously across the Irish Sea where there still seems a wealth of high-quality furniture coming onto the market from private sources to be welcomed not merely by the trade but also by confident and well-heeled private bidders who have been the dominant force these past ten years and more.
High Fidelle-ity ups the price
19 August 2003Between 1781-90, when Fidelle Duvivier was at New Hall he created some of the factory’s finest wares, painting in a highly characteristic style figure and landscape compositions. However, as Geoffrey Godden wrote in his Guide to English Porcelain: “His pieces are so rare that I wonder what on earth he did with himself when he was employed at the factory!”
Golden pheasants weigh their worth
19 August 2003Furniture can usually be relied upon to be the biggest money spinner at provincial auctions but some good quality consignments of reasonably estimated and fresh-to-the-market ceramics furnished this tri-annual fine sale at Bearne's on 1-2 July with some of its most interesting and most commercial entries.
Cows come home from Piccadilly to a £26,600 welcome in Australia
19 August 2003THE latest artistic preference among Australia’s wealthy middle classes appears to be large-scale canvases by John Kelly (b.1965). Born in Bristol, he became an Aussie in the year of his birth when his parents emigrated to Melbourne and throughout his artistic working life, he has immersed himself in Australian iconography but he is particularly celebrated for his paintings of cows.
£4800 pocket globes top specialist bids
19 August 2003SPECIALIST items took three of the top-selling lots at this George Kidner Hampshire sale on 9 July. One was a 1731 pocket globe by Richard Cushee, a land surveyor, map and globe maker known to have been apprenticed to John Sellers Sr, a leading figure in the London map trade at the time.
Is rediscovered Russolo a speculative sleeper?
12 August 2003Dealers are always complaining that, thanks to the Internet and the trade Press, there are no sleepers any more. But a seriously interesting group of pictures appears to have slipped through the trawl nets of specialist London dealers, leaving a local West Country trader with what may turn out to be a canny buy.
Philip Smith’s Lord of the Rings book wall, a new type of art object, sells for £130,000
12 August 2003A small selection of striking and dramatic bookbindings by Philip Smith offered at Sotheby’s as part of their July 10 English Literature & History sale was not a complete success. In fact, five of the six lots failed to sell, but the most important of them, catalogued as “the greatest and most celebrated postwar English bookbinding” brought a bid of £130,000 from a collector.
Italian style around the home
12 August 2003ITALY: MORE than 440 lots of silver and Russian works of art were offered at Christie’s (24-18.5% buyer’s premium, excluding VAT) sale in Rome on June 12, of which slightly less than half sold.
Room for provincial firms at country house sales in absence of London
31 July 2003Taking it in their Stride’s... a £500,000 dispersal on the premises of Courtauld home: AFTER months, if not years, of a scarcity of on-the-premises house sales, this summer has seen the genuine article come the way of a number of provincial auctioneers, the latest being the sale of the contents of Cooke’s House in West Burton, near Pulborough, West Sussex held by Chichester auctioneers Stride’s.
Pair of 1750s Worcester gugglets
31 July 2003With only seven others known to exist, this pair of 1750s Worcester gugglets was destined for success when offered on July 22 at Bristol Auction Rooms. Acquired fairly recently by a local private source, the 9in (24cm) high pair were originally estimated at just £400-600.
In tune with a Kroon in June
31 July 2003The two days of June 24 and 25 were occupied by a general sale (1895 lots) hosted by Dix Noonan Webb. The vast collection of British coins has been dispersed by Spink and latterly DNW at intervals over about the last decade. I was particularly struck by the English royal arms on the reverse of a very nice example of the gold Edward VI sovereign. A sensible estimate of £4000-5000 was suggested. It made £5800.
Breuget gem heads watches
31 July 2003Although it was the clock section that provided the lion’s share of the money generated by Sotheby’s Olympia’s June 19 horological sale (largely thanks to their £800,000 Tompion), the bulk of the content was provided by wrist and pocket watches. Offered in a separate afternoon session, they accounted for 264 of the 395 lots.
Art Deco Italian style, where sex appeal is the extra ingredient
31 July 2003THE response to the Art Deco style in Italy was different from that of the other Northern European countries – often humorous, sometimes surreal and occasionally bordering on the kitsch. These are certainly characteristics of the earthenware figures of Enrico and Elena Scavini’s Lenci factory that playfully combine hippo-riding brunettes with coquettish blondes climbing skyscrapers.
Haycraft to relaunch Marlborough
28 July 2003Planning to shortly reopen their Marlborough saleroom, Hamptons have appointed John Haycraft, formerly of Phillips and Dreweatt Neate, as senior valuer and auctioneer.
Alcalà question export policy as sale tops season
24 July 2003SPAIN: The spring and early summer auctions in Madrid were notable for one outstanding sale held at Alcalá Subastas, which generated not only a very large total but also some controversy. Alcalá Subastas (15% buyer’s premium) counts on the considerable expertise of Richard de Willermin as their paintings expert.
With you, Sir!
24 July 2003Coming up in new York: A large complement of classic American posters by James Montgomery Flagg are featured among the WWI and WWII images in Swann Galleries’ annual summer sale of Vintage Posters in the Big Apple on August 6.
Ruhlmann sale survives some inconstancy in the bedroom...
24 July 2003Following the Camard auction, the most important 20th Century Decorative Arts sale of the Paris summer season, was that staged by ArtCurial (20.33/17.94/11.96% buyer’s premium) at the Hôtel Dassault on July 2.
Boxcar silly! Export package drives up prices
24 July 2003THERE is no getting away from the appeal of railways which were a major feature in one of two Midlands toy sales in June. The June 18 sale in Rugby held by toys specialists Vectis (15% buyer’s premium) set two modest records among a collection of Hornby items starting with a mint and boxed group of four 00 gauge petrol tankers.
Bonhams’ dark horse comes in at £1.75m
24 July 2003In terms of ‘Old Masters’ in their strictest sense, the July 9 sale sale at Bonhams (19.5/10% buyer’s premium) Knightsbridge might have been conspicuously short of quality, but the presence of this fine George Stubbs (1724-1806) canvas of a dark bay in a landscape. right, gave proceedings a lift when it sold at £1.75m to an American collector represented by London dealer Ray Waterhouse in the room.
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