Auctions

An extraordinarily rich and varied crop of book sales have taken place this summer.

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period July 13-19, 2017. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

A superb set of decorated armour sold at Sotheby’s (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) is believed to have set a record. The £880,000 hammer price for the three-quarter-length cuirassier protection is believed to be the highest auction result for 17th century armour.

The interest in studio pottery goes beyond the premier names in the field. Three pieces by Waistel Cooper (1921-2003), a Scot who worked first in Porlock in Somerset and later from the Barbican Pottery in Penzance, generated plenty of bidding at Greenslade Taylor Hunt’s (19% buyer’s premium) July 6 sale in Taunton.

I grew up with Christie’s South Kensington. In late 1975, when I joined the fledgling four-year-old Antiques Trade Gazette, CSK was in its first year of existence.

A superb suite of the original ink and gouache drawings – one shown here – made by Carl Otto Czeschka to illustrate a 1908 edition of Die Niebelungen dem Deutschen Volke sold at $290,000 (£224,805) in a Sotheby’s New York (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) sale of June 6 called Important Design.

Multi-consignments from single-owner collections and a smorgasbord of different collecting categories provided bidders with a huge choice of vintage toys in specialist auctioneer Bertoia’s (20% buyer’s premium) sale on June 2-3.

Helped by a revival of interest in traditional music, the market for the best antique concertinas has accelerated in recent years. Prices for some models have trebled across the decade.

This shagreen, silver and enamel cigarette box and cover, made for Liberty and Co and attributed to Manx designer Archibald Knox (1854-1933), doubled its estimate to sell for £10,500 at Halls (20% buyer’s premium) in Shrewsbury on June 21.

Mitchells’ (20% buyer’s premium) Vintage and Antique Toy Sale on July 15 included a collection of 15 Rowntree’s sweet tins from the Edwardian era.

A scarce collection of watercolours by Biggles creator WE Johns (1893-1968) sold beyond expectations in Sworders’ (22% buyer’s premium) June 27 sale in Stansted Mountfitchet.

Leading the sale of Arts & Crafts at the Woolley & Wallis June 21 sale was the monumental Pilkington’s Lancastrian vase shown above, standing some 48cm (19in) high.