Auctions

A copy of the earliest printed sea atlas sold for a record £52,000 to a Dutch dealer in an Anderson & Garland sale of November 28.

There is nothing quite like dying young for genius to acquire immortality. An object lesson in this came with the predictably frantic bidding from the four corners of the world at the sale of some effects once belonging to Maria Callas. The total of €1.3m (£900,000) trebled expectations.

The Nativity and Annunciation to the Shepherds scenes illustrated here are part of a superb group of 51 miniatures dating from the last years of the 12th century.

Christie’s held the first auction of spirits in New York since Prohibition on December 8.

It is only 3.25in (8cm) high, but it made more than any sculpture or antiquity ever offered at auction.

SMALL in size but large in shock value, this portrait miniature stunned the Gorringes’ saleroom when it sold at £90,000 plus 17.5 per cent buyer’s premium on December 6.

Among the highlights of Tennants’ Autumn Catalogue sale held in Leyburn on November 22-23 was this exceptional Victorian Egyptian revival table clock.

Russian week in London saw over ten sales offered at Sotheby’s, Christie’s, Bonhams and specialist Russian auctioneers MacDougall’s last week.

It was a headline writer’s dream: an 80-year-old William Crawford & Sons biscuit tin still with its original contents intact sold at auction for a massive £13,000 (plus 20 per cent buyer’s premium). Crumbs! Cookie tin brings a lot of dough (Reuters) was just one of a number of groaning puns.

Kent auctioneers Hobbs Parker are to close in the New Year. After more than 50 years selling antiques and fine art in Ashford, the parent company have chosen to close the division in the face of rising rent and external competition.

Gagosian’s bid gives Sotheby’s new heart

Stella Show Management have said that Antiques at the Armory, the January 18-20 antiques show at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York City, will go ahead as planned.

Anyone who picked up Sotheby’s latest Chinese catalogue for their November 7 sale in London could not have failed to notice the stunning blue and white Qianlong moonflask on the catalogue cover, the piece that topped the sale when it sold for £2.5m.

THE first book on swimming printed in England was Everard Digby’s De arte natandi of 1587.

North west Essex auctioneers Mullocks Wells are to close by the end of the year. Their Monday, November 19 sale of fine art and antiques will go ahead as planned but is likely to be the last at the Dunmow Sale and Auction Rooms.

BEARNE’S have been forced to withdraw a large number of lots relating to Lord Byron from their November 7 sale.

PREVIOUSLY unpublished letters from the poet John Betjeman are to form part of the setting for a travelling display of early 20th century jewellery designer Helen Holmes at Bonhams.

The descendants of James Thursby Pelham, a renowned early 20th century collector who was advised by R. W. Symonds, are in the process of selling some fine English furniture.

Two different pistols with very different stories sold at provincial auctions in the UK in October.

FRENCH auctioneers are to hold their next open weekend of events on November 17-18.