Auctions

The extraordinary walnut and burr walnut veneered hexagonal display table, right, combining the talents of three well-known names of the Scottish design movement will carry an estimate of £7000-10,000 when Shapes sell the contents of Glencruitten House, near Oban from their Edinburgh saleroom on September 6.

US: STAR lot in the Stair Galleries of New York State sale scheduled for September 6 is this set of 10 George III mahogany dining chairs (2 + 8) originally owned by The Rt. Hon. the Viscount Downe at Wykeham Abbey in Yorkshire.

FOR 40 years, the Suffolk family concern Tudorose Ltd has been involved, directly or indirectly, with the antiques world. The operation is very much in line with current trends, for the company creates high-quality reproduction antique furniture, designs contemporary furniture, restores furniture and completely renovates interiors, among other things.

FOR the second time, the crowded sporting calendar at the city’s Millennium Stadium has forced the Cardiff Antiques and Collectors Fair to relocate to nearby Cowbridge.

INCREASINGLY antique dealers make the crossover from being purveyors of fine, venerable objects of intrinsic quality to selling objects which are part of a whole look.

AN INTERESTING and historic show is coming up at London’s Plus One Plus Two Galleries, 161-163 Seymour Place, W1, from October 8 to November 1 when Classic Romantic Modern combines work from the 1930s designer Jean-Michel Frank with the accomplished contemporary architectural artist Carl Laubin.

Though no direct relationship has yet been established, there are very obvious similarities between the manuscript map reproduced right and one of the more significant maps in American history, the engraved map, right lower, found in the History of the Expedition under the Commands of Captains Lewis and Clark... in 1804-06.

THE fascinating pocket sundial, right, dated to 1585 and attributed to the Elizabethan mapmaker Augustine Ryther (1550-93) is to be offered on September 25 at the Lincoln rooms of Thomas Mawer & Sons. Although Ryther was better known for his map engraving, he also created a number of high quality brass instruments, of which only two have so far been documented.

Halls Fine Art of Shrewsbury discovered this ornate carved oak sideboard, valued at up to £35,000, at a home in the Welshpool area and will offer it at auction on September 24. The sideboard was commissioned by John Naylor for the dining room at Leighton Hall, near Welshpool and made by famous furniture makers J. D. Crace after a design by Pugin. 

The Somerset-based restoration and conservation specialists Everett Fine Art Ltd will launch what they believe is the first emergency service for art and antiques this month.

Twice a year Russian silver and icons are included in Christie’s South Kensington’s (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) routine miniature and vertu sales and it was the 44-lot Russian silver section that saw some of the most consistent bidding in this 587-lot July 15 outing.

SCOTTISH provincial silver is one of the only consistently strong areas of the silver market and, if recent sales in Edinburgh are anything to go by, Banff silver is what everyone wants.

IRELAND: IRISH pictures for many years flew off the rostrum with both a strong private market in Ireland and the money of Irish-Americans to fuel the enthusiasm. Irish art still, of course, sells, but there is no doubt that collectors are becoming more selective.

THE success of Christie`s marines sale in New York will no doubt be heartening news for Bonhams (19.5/10% buyer’s premium) who have been holding specialist marine picture sales for the last 20 years and whose latest offering, the second so far this year, is due to be held at their Bond Street rooms on September 16.

FRANCE: The 162-lot Piasa (17.94/11.96% buyer’s premium) furniture sale on June 25 was 70 per cent sold by lot and brought €1.8m (£1.24m) hammer, with a three-drawered Louis XVI citronwood-veneered bureau plat, with painted metal decoration of arabesques and blue and white medallions, evocative of the work of Pierre Macret (active 1756-85), selling for €340,000 (£234,000) – helped by its leather top with crowned N and imperial corner eagles.

FRANCE: ON July 4 Chayette-Cheval (17.94% buyer’s premium) devoted an entire sale to clocks, watches and related items, achieving a hammer total of €571,000 (£394,000).

The Collection of Louis Vivien, a Paris bookseller who opened his shop in Rue des Ecoles in 1905, swiftly specialising in the aeronautical world after attending the inaugural Salon Aéronautique of 1908, provided Tajan (20.33% buyer’s premium) with yet another new sale theme – Aviation – on June 21.

Last summer Sotheby’s took a bid of £36,000 on a copy of the 1937 first edition of The Hobbit inscribed in October of that year to Tolkien’s Aunt Jane; this summer they raised £40,000 for a copy that he had inscribed at the time of publication.

A biscuit box is probably not every young child’s idea of an exciting toy, but to collectors of tins, advertising and tinplate, the Huntley & Palmers Tribeck lorry tin, 1937, 83/4in (22cm), in Bonhams Knightsbridge’s (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) trains, toys and diecast sale on July 15 was the most coveted entry.

DUELLING pistols often attract considerable interest and one of the top lots in this 1162-lot Welsh sale at Anthemion on 16 July was a pair of pistols by Wogden & Barton, 1795-1803.