Auctions

THE uplifting story of how West Auckland FC won ‘the first world cup’ has gone down in the annals of English football.

THE Edinburgh sales at Bonhams and Lyon & Turnbull in August both featured Wemyss wares, offering an opportunity to assess the current market.

The latest sale of Scottish silver at Lyon & Turnbull included a number of early Edinburgh hollowares, including this pair of James VI (I of England) communion cups.

THIS Holtzapffel & Deyerlein ornamental turning lathe made in London c.1827 came up for sale at Skinner in Marlborough, Massachusetts in a Science, Technology and Clocks sale.

FRENCH auction houses have won their battle to conduct private treaty sales.

A LOCAL private collection provided the most memorable highlight of Tennants' latest two-day sale in Leyburn, North Yorkshire, this fine and rare James II ebony-veneered table timepiece by John Knibb.

ICONIC is the only word to describe two gold medals offered at a recent sale by Noble Numismatics of Melbourne, Australia.

THIS fine set of three George II rococo casters by Eliza Godfrey, London 1752 sold for £66,000 at Henry Adams of Chichester on July 14.

INTACT English ‘shaft and globe’ bottles from the 17th century are among the trophies of early bottle and glass collecting.

CHESHIRE auctioneers Peter Wilson Fine Art have been experimenting with electronic pen and paper technology in place of the conventional paper sale sheets during their weekly gallery sales.

Making a record price for any Venetian view painting at auction, Francesco Guardi's (1712-1793) monumental View of the Rialto Bridge, Looking North, from the Fondamenta del Carbon sold for £23.8m hammer at Sotheby's Old Master evening sale on July 7.

THE anticipated highlight of Christie’s ‘Exceptional Sale’ on July 7, a rediscovered bronze by Adriaen de Vries (d.1626), was withdrawn from sale at the last minute.

The auction of British ceramics at Bonhams on May 18 was the first at New Bond Street for six months and it was a big ensemble made up of the usual range of single-owner collections mingled with material from various vendors.

Bought at a car boot sale in the Portsmouth area earlier this year for just 40p each, these three opaque twist wine glasses decorated by the Beilby workshop of Newcastle upon Tyne c.1765 sold for £16,000 at the latest sale held by Stride and Son of Chichester.

THE discovery of a new clock by a Golden Age maker is bound to generate excitement in horological circles, but the £600,000 plus premium paid at Bonhams last week for the ebony table clock pictured here illustrates just how much the rarest and freshest examples can command.

ANY perception that the demand for top English delftwares had softened seems to have been scotched by the huge competition for this 17th century London-made mug.

A PICTURE purchased at Sotheby’s Chatsworth ‘Attic’ sale last year has become the centre of an attribution debate after being re-ascribed to Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641) by a leading London dealership.

BILLED as “the greatest collection of Modern British Art ever to come to the market”, the sale of the Evill-Frost collection at Sotheby’s in London did not disappoint.

WHEN a grand, photographically illustrated record of the Great Exhibition of 1851 was planned by the Royal Commissioners and Executive Committee, they nonetheless kept a tight grip on the exhibition purse strings.

IT is interesting to compare the commercial fortunes of these two similar, but not identical, Mouseman adzed oak sideboards sold at auction in recent weeks.