Auctions

The compact animal carvings of the Tomotada school are rightly thought of as the zenith of shashin netsuke, and this ivory buffalo and calf, right, by the Kyoto master (or one of his pupils) attracted strong bidding from US and London trade at Bonhams’dispersal of Branton Court.

Horseless carriages have long been the preserve of Thimbleby and Shoreland at Reading but the private collection of farm implements built up by Herefordshire corn merchant and farmer Hector Morris saw Leominster auctioneers Brightwells (15% buyer’s premium inc. vat) put a number of carriages on the market on July 20.

Ever keen to come up with new auction formats that stimulate the interest of private buyers, Bonhams (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) held their first sale of sporting and ornithological pictures combined with sporting guns at Knightsbridge on August 7-8.

Golf has always been a subject that can have a dramatic effect on the price levels of artists who normally make little impact in the salerooms. Take the case of Frank Watson Wood (1862-1953), a Berwick-on-Tweed watercolourist who specialised in landscapes and marines, the best examples of which fetch around £1500 at auction.

This muscular terracotta modellino of a moor, Il Moro, 2ft 75/8in high (80.5cm), attributed to Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), wrested the top slot from a powerfully modelled pair of 16th century bronzes in Sotheby’s (19.5/10% buyer’s premium) 174-lot European Sculpture and Works of Art 900-1900 auction on July 9.

The schwein-degen, or boar sword, is a rare beast. Good examples can elude collectors for decades, and the cobwebbed halls of schloss- dwelling aristocrats are a favourite hiding place. So there was plenty of excitement when an example broke cover at Sotheby’s sale of arms and armour in London on July 10.

FLOODS and foul weather at the beginning of the month forced the postponement of at least one sale in the north of England.

THIS 10 1/2in (27cm) tall George III silver coffee pot, will be offered for sale at Hambleton Auctions in Thornaby when they hold their debut auction on August 22.

WITH the Proms season now upon us it seems fitting that a portrait of the founder of the famous concerts, Sir Henry Wood, topped the pictures on offer at Bonhams Oxford (17.5% buyer’s premium) on June 25.

MALLAMS 463-lot Gloucestershire auction on June 28 (15% buyer's premium) included one of the Victorian olivewood pieces inscribed Jerusalem which have made a couple of startling prices of late.

IN A July 15 Golfing Memorabilia sale held by Bonhams Chester (17.5/10% buyer's premium) a scarce copy of C.B. Clapcott’s The History of Handicapping, a 10pp booklet of c.1924, secured in cream card covers by now rusty staples, was sold at a ten-times-estimate £4000, and one of 500 limited edition copies of a 1935 book by Clapcott, Rules of the Ten Oldest Golf Clubs from 1754-1848, a near fine copy in glassine wrappers, reached £1350.

SIXTEEN letters in the hand of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Pretender, written in the years 1746-48, in the aftermath of Culloden, formed a key part of this manuscript sale at Bloomsbury Book Auctions (17.5/10% buyer's premium) on June 20.

CONDITION is a prime concern in the 20th century print market but occasionally images come on the market that are so rare and so striking that condition concerns take a lower priority – particularly if the buyer has been searching for such a piece for 30 years.

BUDDING interior designers will find no shortage of dates for the diary in the salerooms next month. On September 30 Sotheby’s Olympia launch their first in a new series of interior decorator sales with a multi-property selection featuring material billed as “of great visual impact to appeal to the professional designer and discerning collector alike”.

CLARKE GAMMON's 584-lot sale on June 25 (15% buyer's premium) was most notable for the Sydney Oliver Trust costume and textile collection.

The ceramics highlight of a mixed subject sale at Raymond de Nicolaÿ (17.94/14.35% buyer’s premium) at Drouot on June 26 was this elaborately decorated maiolica charger c.1520, from Deruta, 19in (49cm) in diameter, which made a double-estimate €330,000 (£213,000).

PROOF that the specialist collector knows no close season was offered in June by Weller & Dufty (15% buyer’s premium), at Birmingham and Wallis & Wallis (15% buyer’s premium), Lewes, who held sales devoted to arms and armour and militaria on consecutive days.

A Chinese works of art sale held by Christie’s on June 18 included a set of S.W. Bushell’s Oriental Ceramic Art illustrated by Examples from the Collection of W.T. Walters, published in 10 volumes in 1897 and illustrated with 116 chromos by Louis Prang after J & J.C. Callowhill.

“Up above the streets and houses, Rainbow climbing high...”. Down the Old Brompton Road in Christie’s salerooms on July 11, veteran fans of the 1970/80s psychedelic children’s TV programme Rainbow had good reason to croon the immortal lyrics of their favourite theme tune.

WITH a 96 per cent success rate after the June 13 sale, Bristol’s Clevedon Salerooms (15% buyer’s premium) seem to have convinced vendors of the realities of the market which means not everything makes its estimate.