Auctions

...in Massachusetts: START your engines… there’s just time to race over to America for a chance to own one of the smartest little sports cars around.

OFFERED as part of a March 28 sale held by Pacific Book Auctions was a set of six porcelain plaques painted by John Tenniel with characters from Alice in Wonderland.

SWITZERLAND: A mammoth four-day mixed sale of just under 2700 lots was held in Zürich by Galerie Koller (18%/16%/12% buyer’s premium) from March 19–23. This comprised furniture, carpets, decorative arts, jewellery, clocks, fine art and books and the auctioneers felt that the results confirmed the stability of the market for material of the best quality.

Royal Doulton and Moorcroft collectors are always in abundance at these sales in the heart of the Potteries, and if their specialisms within their subjects sometimes make for hard going at the rostrum, the increasing demand for Royal Albert pieces was well catered for.

Over the last six months Amersham Auction Rooms have reported an increase in prices for ceramics and collectables in contrast to static or falling bids placed for furniture.

AUCTIONEER Andrew Hartley has been holding biannual toy sales for a decade but the last few years has seen them grow in strength. Totals have risen steadily from around £40,000 several years ago to the £66,000 mark achieved at their most recent 650-lot sale which boasted a 95 per cent take-up.

“It was like the 1970s all over again,” said John Benjamin of Woolley and Wallis, describing the breadth of quality at his jewellery sale in Salisbury on April 24-25.

This marquetry panel, right, was one of the distinguishing features of a much-altered kingwood bonheur du jour which highlighted Dreweatt Neate’s (15 per cent buyer’s premium) furniture and works of art sale on March 27.

One of only a few thousand produced, a 1935 Dinky Coachcraft, streamlined van, led this specialist toy sale in Sussex at Wallis and Wallis on 18 March.

ITALY: Spring has been slow to bring a little sunshine to the auction world in Italy, with rather lacklustre sales for Finarte and Semenzato’s opening moves. It will remain to be seen whether the scandal that has enveloped Corbelli, majority shareholder of Semenzato and chairman of Finarte, will affect the performance of the auction houses (that are not accused of any wrongdoing) in the more important sales later in the season.

NAPOLEONIC MEMORABILIA (£1 = €1.62): A sale entitled L’Empire à Fontainebleau confirmed the evergreen appeal of Napoleonic memorabilia at Osenat, Fontainebleau (17.94/13.16% buyer’s premium) on March 10, where one of the last linen shirts worn by Napoleon on St Helena was offered for sale.

One of the earliest known portraits of Sir Robert Walpole, England’s first Prime Minister, is to be sold at Cheffin’s Cambridge salerooms on May 14, as part of the collection of Cambridge academic Sir John Plumb.

One of the main preoccupations of the 19th century art potters – and a distinguishing feature of much of their work – is an emphasis on hand crafting and experimental work and an interest in the techniques and glazes of earlier periods.

Dr Anton C.R. Dreesmann spent several million dollars of his fortune on Impressionist and Modern art, but, for all this expenditure, few specialists in this most expensive of all sectors of the art market seemed to have regarded Dr Dreesmann as a major collector.

Limoges enamel has its English equivalent in the rustic little boxes produced by artisans in the South Staffordshire towns of Bilston and Wolverhampton during the late 18th century.

Keen to maximise international interest, Christie’s sold the major portion of Dr Anton C.R. Dreesmann’s Old Master pictures in London on April 11.

Dreesmann’s 132 lots of Dutch silver made a major input into Christie’s Amsterdam (20.825/11.9% buyer’s premium) session of his collection, accounting for five of the ten highest prices and completely selling out.

THE dust is finally starting to settle in the newly merged Bonhams (17.5% buyer’s premium). Those who lost their jobs have long since gone, departments have been reshuffled and on March 27 the last print sale was held at the Chelsea salerooms.

The curious inhabitants of Middle Earth have existed quite happily (and vividly) in the minds of readers since J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic The Lord of the Rings first appeared in the 1950s.

NEW YORK: They say that sex sells, but it would be wrong to assume this was the only attraction of this 18th century Indian illustration to the Gita Govinda, Krishna and Radha Make Love, 1775-1780, 101/8in by 61/8in (25.7cm x15.6cm).