Auctions

Of the 24 silversmiths known to have worked in the Aberdeenshire town of Banff from the 17th century until the trade died out in the mid-1800s, William Scott the Elder is the first whose name is recorded.

A selection of stand-out auction results for silver in recent sales.

Among the lots in Christie’s antiquities sale in New York on October 28 is a Greek gold oak wreath from the late Classical to early Hellenistic period, c.4th-3rd century BC.

Works by the Irish artist Paul Henry (1877-1958) appear frequently in Irish and UK salerooms but it is far more unusual for a painting by the Belfast-born painter – whose favoured subject matter was views of the west of Ireland – to emerge in Australia.

Jean Dufy’s (1888-1964) rendition of Le Moulin de la Galette, a famous Parisian landmark immortalised on canvas by many artists, will be offered at AB Levy’s Palm Beach jewellery, art and antiques auction on August 29 in Florida.

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period August 15-21, 2019. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

The Tribal Art and Antiquities sale at Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury on September 18-19 includes property from the estate of Ingrid McAlpine (1939-2018), one of London’s most prominent antiquities dealers.

In stark contrast to the elegant dolls’ houses which took the higher bids at a recent auction (ATG No 2403), a shillelagh was evidence of violence and tragedy in 19th century Ireland.

“The wayfarer, as he reached him, saluted with a gesture of courtesy that had something foreign about it”.

A complete set of plans showing what was once the world’s largest industrial complex and the British state’s single biggest investment has sold in Cornwall. Thomas Milton’s plans of the Royal Dockyards sold to an online buyer for £10,000 (plus 18% buyer’s premium) at David Lay's latest sale in Penzance.

Brought into the Epping saleroom of the Bonington auction house with a collection of Moorcroft, this Florentine Mannerist bronze sold for £150,000.

Relatively few English spinets from the 17th century survive but one surfaced at a Criterion auction in Islington. Loosely catalogued and estimated at just £100-200, it made £5500 (plus premium).

Although catalogued as ‘Continental’, this mid-19th century porcelain figure of a seated semi-nude ballet dancer below carries impressed marks for the factory established by the English entrepreneur Francis Gardner in the town of Verbilki near Moscow in 1766.

One of the highest prices for Albert Chevallier Tayler (1862-1925) at a UK auction in the last 10 years was achieved at Roseberys’ (25% buyer’s premium) latest picture sale when a late Victorian ‘period’ scene attracted multiple bidders.

The reason that an otherwise unexceptional 1737 English language edition of Horace’s 'Odes, Satyrs and Epistles' – lacking a portrait and three text pages – sold for the substantial sum of £50,000 in the Bonhams (27.5/25/20/13.9%) sale on June 26 is to be found on the front endpaper notes shown below.

Our weekly selection from salerooms.