Auctions

Clarice Cliff: The latest auction foray into the colourful world of Clarice Cliff at Christie’s South Kensington (17.5/10% buyer’s premium), May 2, did not perform as well as previous specialist sales. Buyers were only found for 62 per cent of the 302 lots compared to their last Clarice Cliff outing in November 2001 that boasted a higher 72 per cent take-up for the 430 lots.

Furniture and pictures can usually be relied upon to bag the biggest prices in provincial auctions but while this was so at Bristol Auction Rooms April sale there were also interesting works in some of the other sections.

The late Clive Sherwood bought this imposing Elizabethan oak tester bed at Sotheby’s in London in 1969. By all accounts he had to sell all his silver to raise the cash, but he was still buying early oak at a time when it was possible to buy in bulk and learn from your mistakes.

BICYCLES AND CYCLING MEMORABILIA: The veteran bicycle and cycling ephemera market continues to be driven by a small group of serious UK and international collectors and museums. It was one of the strongest sections in Bonhams (15/10% buyer’s premium) 634-lot auction of Veteran Bicycles & Cycling Memorabilia, Collectors’ Motor Cars, Toys, Models and Automobilia, held at the RAF Museum, Hendon on April 21 and 22.

Sotheby’s quadruple recent results and Christie’s celebrate boost too: Barely a month after its former chairman and chief executive were sentenced in a New York court, Sotheby’s bounced back in their Manhattan saleroom on May 8 with a $126m (£88.7m) Part I auction of Impressionist and Modern Art.

Of all the western mining states, Arizona conceivably had the largest number of land scams. Companies with no intention of mining were set up only to collect money from investors. Arizona was an ideal place for scams, because it lacked a major transportation system and was subject to attack by neighbouring Apache tribes, so investors were less likely to visit their investments.

Over the years, car mascots have been used to advertise not merely the marque of the machine but also as good luck charms and were patriotic symbols during the First World War. In the mid-Sixties, car mascots were banned in the UK, being deemed a ‘danger to public safety’ because of the injuries they could cause in collisions. Since then, naturally, their collectabilty and value has steadily increased.

Jewellery and silver enthusiasts were catered for in Ireland as well as Wiltshire during April as private buyers flocked to O’Reilly’s (15 per cent buyer’s premium) sale of gemstones and silver in Dublin on April 10.

This gold pair-cased pocket watch was brought into the offices of Charterhouse auctioneers of Sherborne, Dorset in a plastic carrier bag – albeit a Harrods bag – by a vendor who had kept it in his sock drawer for many years.

As well as Christie’s main Islamic arts sale at King St, there was a larger 427 lot event covering the same general areas at middle-ranking level in their South Kensington (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) rooms on April 25.

Although all the other sales that used to be held at Sotheby’s Billingshurst have now moved to their Olympia rooms*, the one notable exception is their twice-yearly auctions of garden statuary and architectural items. These continue to be held in West Sussex where they can benefit from Billingshurst’s location for a stylish viewing in their country house grounds.

This unusual looking piece from Ottoman Turkey, pictured right, provided one of the highlights of Bonhams’ Islamic sale on April 24 when it sold for £40,000.

Three Lincolnshire auctioneers are setting aside their competitive differences and collaborating on a week-long series of sales in the county.

THE strength of the Irish picture market will be tested in May when Sotheby’s and Christie’s hold their annual Irish sales in London. Recent sales in Ireland indicate things look promising, and that interest is still strong Stateside was confirmed at Dennis Auction Service (10% buyer’s premium) in Stewartsville, New Jersey on March 9 sale when this early work, right, by Jack Butler Yeats (1871-1957) came up for auction.

OFFERED as part of a March 28 sale held by Pacific Book Auctions was a set of six porcelain plaques painted by John Tenniel with characters from Alice in Wonderland.

...in Massachusetts: START your engines… there’s just time to race over to America for a chance to own one of the smartest little sports cars around.

Royal Doulton and Moorcroft collectors are always in abundance at these sales in the heart of the Potteries, and if their specialisms within their subjects sometimes make for hard going at the rostrum, the increasing demand for Royal Albert pieces was well catered for.

SOLD at £1200 to Jarndyce in this sale of photographs, historical documents, autographs and ephemera was an 1838 manuscript of The Student, a play by Frederick Bate.

SWITZERLAND: A mammoth four-day mixed sale of just under 2700 lots was held in Zürich by Galerie Koller (18%/16%/12% buyer’s premium) from March 19–23. This comprised furniture, carpets, decorative arts, jewellery, clocks, fine art and books and the auctioneers felt that the results confirmed the stability of the market for material of the best quality.

A pair of ornamental blue and gold vases made by the Manufacture Impériale in St Petersburg (c.1825-30) soared to €520,000 (£335,000) at Beaussant-Lefèvre on April 10.