Auctions

ST James's gallery Dickinson had one of the most impressive selections of paintings at TEFAF Maastricht and, like many other dealers in Old and Modern Masters, enjoyed a good fair.

DEMAND for Martin Brothers pottery may have tapered off slightly but it still provided three of the top prices at Bonhams’ recent Ceramic Design sale.

NO-ONE seemed to be in doubt about the quality of Sevi Guatelli’s Clarice Cliff collection.

BOOK dealers are turning auctioneers and fair organisers in a bid to generate new income.

THIS iron casket with gold and silver damascening decoration provided the high point of the sale conducted by Shapes of Edinburgh on March 7, selling at £37,000.

Following days of brinkmanship between the vendor and the Indian authorities, the controversial saga of the auction of Mohandas Gandhi’s personal items reached a satisfactory conclusion when they were acquired for the Indian people by a wealthy businessman.

THE French auctioneers' association SYMEV have launched their annual weekend Follement Marteau to promote buying at auction on March 28-29.

Among the highlights of the sale conducted by Sworders of Stansted Mountfitchet on February 17 was this William IV patent mahogany library armchair, with carved acanthus leaf sides, turned lobed front legs and outswept back supports.

JAMES BRINDLEY lies amongst these Rocks,He made Canals, Bridges, and Locks...

Leonard Joel auctioneers of Melbourne, Australia, are appealing to vendors to consign art, antiques and jewellery to auction and donate the proceeds to the Victorian Disaster Appeal to help victims of the Victorian bushfires.

SOUTH Wales auctioneers Peter Francis anticipate moving to their new Carmarthen saleroom in the spring.

Positive news from Dreweatts' clocks sale at Donnington Priory, Newbury on February 10 which posted a 92 per cent selling rate.

BY 1780, John Trumbull (1756-1843), a budding young artist from Lebanon, Connecticut who had sketched the Revolutionary War, found himself in grave difficulty.

Melting bidders' hearts in a snow-covered Dorchester, this rare Doulton figure of a little girl cradling a doll proved the star attraction at Duke's sale on February 5-6.

IN Paris the auction year will start in the most spectacular manner with the Yves Saint Laurent/Bergé collection sale on February 23-24. But 2009 holds out promise for the French art market in other areas too.

Prisoner-of-war work is the name given to intricately crafted small objects created from carved bone or wood and straw marquetry by captured French prisoners languishing in the hulks and other jails during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.

Remarkable for both their size and their original condition, this pair of Italian console tables c,1760 sold for £28,000 Semley Auctioneers of Shaftesbury in Dorset on January 24.

IT doesn’t happen very often that either Sotheby’s or Christie’s can claim a major sales victory over their rivals, but at the latest Old Masters series in New York one side came out the clear winners.

MEMENTOS of the notorious Kray Twins amassed while they served life sentences in Parkhurst and Broadmoor were offered in some 160 lots at Chiswick Auctions on the evening of January 26.