Auctions

THERE was only one spectacular price but plenty of exceptional results at this vast Essex dispersal at Sworder's, September 10-11 (Buyer's premium: 15 per cent) – a reminder to the trade that quality goods may be hard to find but wider margins can be made from low-value material.

With the government still dithering over whether and when it should put a bill banning hunting with dogs in England to the vote in the House of Commons, it could hardly be a more ironic time for Sotheby's to be auctioning the only known portrait of the 'Father of Foxhunting' and the founder and first Master of the Quorn Hunt.

Quality paintings have been extremely thin on the ground in the provinces in the last few weeks, but this Dorothea Sharp (1874-1955) oil did at least create a stir at the Leominster rooms of Brightwells (15% buyer’s premium) on August 29 when it climbed to £41,000 against an estimate of £3000-5000.

THE heroic exploits of the first Duke of Wellington in defeating Napoleon at Waterloo must be among the best recorded events in British military history.

ONCE almost the hallmarks of those corner junk/antiques shops, wrought-metal stick stands these days have a genuine value – a sort of camp appeal utilised by the decorator trade. Of course, the interest in this example, right, offered at Raymond P. Inman (15% buyer’s premium) at Brighton on September 2 may simply have been a greyhound enthusiast attracted by the dog and racing trophy. Whatever the bidder’s motives, the grey-painted stand sold at £790.

WE are used to seeing one-piece, tabletsigned, Japanese ivories in good condition make anything from £800 up to several thousand pounds at auction. But somewhat more surprising, given the selective state of the general market, was the high selling rate of low-grade okimono, right, at the Clevedon Salerooms (15 per cent buyer’s premium) in Bristol on September 5.

The Norfolk auctioneers Keys got a lot of media exposure in March when they took a bid of £22,000 for a collection of letters, cards, etc, written by the late Diana, Princess of Wales, to a Mrs Pendrey, a long-term employee and friend from her Althorp days, but in this sale another small selection of letters, apparently from the same source, failed to sell against an estimate of £7500-10,000.

ONE of the more unusual characters of the so-called ‘Golden Age’ of Danish art was Sally Henriques (1815-1886). Firstly, contrary to what the name might suggest, Sally was a man. Secondly he was Jewish. And thirdly he painted for just four years from 1841-45 before becoming – in a neat reversal of the career of Georges Braque – a house painter.

ORIENTAL: A large, single-owner eclectic Oriental gathering ranging from Chinese jades and scholars’ objects to Contemporary paintings, Japanese lacquerwares and Burmese woodcarving went under the hammer at Bonhams’ Bond Street rooms on September 10.

From the beaches of Newquay to the Kyle of Lochalsh, there was barely a corner of the British Isles not represented at Christie’s South Kensington’s sale of travel posters on September 12, but the appeal of the top ranked poster had more to do with sport than travel.

ORIENTAL: A large, single-owner eclectic Oriental gathering ranging from Chinese jades and scholars’ objects to Contemporary paintings, Japanese lacquerwares and Burmese woodcarving went under the hammer at Bonhams’ Bond Street rooms on September 10.

Two D-type Jaguars, one shown here being used as a child’s plaything, the other an actual boy’s toy, both featured in Bonhams’ September 6 sale of sports cars and automobilia at Goodwood.

Sub-Saharan Africa has a panoply of diseases to strike down the most seasoned, inoculated travellers with a bout of hypochondria, so imagine what it was like when Henry Morton Stanley entered the bush 100 years ago, armed only with this case of patent Victorian medicine.

DENMARK: The modern design session of Bruun-Rasmussen’s (25% buyer’s premium incl. VAT) mixed 5-day sale from August 5–9 included a smattering of pieces from each of the big Scandinavian names: Just Anderson, Axel Salto, Poul Henningsen, Hans J. Wegner, Mogens Koch and Kaare Klint all put in an appearance, but the main focus was on Finn Juhl.

Sold for £180 as part of a Hamptons sale on August 1 was the handbill exhorting Englishmen! to take up arms against Napoleon, right.

A Pennsylvanian enthusiast’s lifetime collection of faux bamboo furniture will be up for sale later this month in New York when it forms the centrepiece of Doyle’s sale of furniture, decorations and paintings on September 25.

WHILE prices for run-of-the-mill silver have been all but flat-lining since the extraordinary Seventies boom, there are welcome blips from time to time to show the market isn’t quite dead.

The Margaret Cadman Collection - Preview: The short supply of good quality period ceramics (indeed of all antiques) compared to the golden era of past collecting is a constant lament these days and one often wonders just what has happened to all of them? For several thousand pieces the answer is that they have been squirrelled away for decades in a large Victorian house on the South Coast.

WHEN Tom Crowther founded Crowther of Syon Lodge dealing in antique chimneypieces in 1876, the prevailing design trends were moving from Gothic Revival to Aesthetic, and over the next 125 years the Middlesex firm have serviced every subsequent design trend.

MANY auctioneers decide against holding sales in August, traditionally the quietest month of the auction calender. These Staffordshire auctioneers, Richard Winterton chose to go ahead with their monthly sales which, as so often throughout the year, was led by brown furniture.