Auctions

The year 1884 was very significant for the Valencian artist Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1923). Aged only 21, he travelled to Madrid for the third time, where he was awarded a second-class medal at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts for El Dos de Mayo 1808, and he received a grant to study in Rome for four years.

“The good thing for Welsh art is the maturity of the tourist industry. It’s no longer, ‘if you want to go to Wales, you go to Butlin’s in Pwllheli’.” Ben Rogers Jones of Rogers Jones (20% buyer’s premium) puts much of the increased demand for Welsh art over the last 20 years down to that tourism trend.

Bloodthirsty, ruthless and mad – Roman emperors have often been perceived as highly unsavoury individuals.

Bruun Rasmussen is holding a sale of Russian works of art in Copenhagen on June 9 featuring material from various private collections, including that of Norwegian commercial attaché Richard Zeiner- Henriksen (1878-1965).

One of the surprises at Peter Wilson’s April 26- 27 sale was a tinplate clockwork pram pushed by a woman stamped Burnett Limited, London, Made in England.

‘Group lots should be viewed’ was the wise recommendation in the catalogue description of this mixed bag offered at Tennants’ (18.5% buyer’s premium) sale of vintage costume, textiles and dolls at Leyburn on May 13.

Over three busy days in May Dominic Winter (19.5% buyer’s premium) mounted a three-catalogue sale that presented close on 1600 lots in all.

Dreweatts has set a new auction record for the 20th century British sculptor John Skeaping (1901-80). At Donnington Priory on May 24, this 2ft (60cm) pink marble carving, Female nude, right, signed and dated 1928, sold to Cork Street dealership Browse & Darby for £90,000 (£111,600 including premium).

The general sale at Dominic Winter was followed on May 11 by one of motoring literature, automobilia and historic bicycles and accessories – a 620-lot auction held in conjunction with Transport Collector Auctions.

Included in Tajan’s design auction on June 1 is this striking 21st century low plexiglass table created by the Japanese architect Toyo Ito (b.1941).

A gig poster advertising as the headline act ‘Britain’s Fabulous Disc Stars!’ sold for £28,000 at the Roger Jones (20% buyer’s premium inc VAT) May 23 auction.

Such are the positive reports coming in from the provinces that one begins to fear what the finger-crossing superstitious call the curse of the commentator and the more rational know as the reversion to the mean.

Two small private collections of glass, Art Nouveau and contemporary, were clear areas of interest at Cheffins’ (22.5% buyer’s premium) Art & Design from 1860 sale at Cambridge on May 11.

First Professor of Cornish Studies at Exeter University and Bard of Gorseth Kernow, Charles Thomas (1928-2016) was both a prolific writer and a bibliophile.

The strikingly striated exotic timber known as palmwood was a signature material for the designer and interior decorator Eugène Printz (1889-1948). A characteristic example of the distinctive furniture he created in this medium featured in the decorative arts sale held by Tajan (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) on May 16.