Auction Reports

A Beatles-themed sale held by Cato Crane (28% buyer’s premium) in Liverpool last month included architectural souvenirs from St Peter’s Church in Woolton.

The allure of well-priced, market-fresh chattels from a blue-blood country estate can pique the interest of the most world-weary auctioneer or antiques dealer.

This 9in (23cm) Qing blue and white porcelain bowl decorated in underglaze blue with squirrels in fruiting bears a Qianlong (1736-95) six-character seal mark and is probably of the period.

The Japanese battery-powered watches once viewed as cheap and lacking soul are now being taken seriously at auction despite collector snobbery

Perhaps the quirkiest of all of the many Omega Speedmaster models is this one with a cushion shape or ‘TV’ dial.

The Rolex GMT-Master, originally designed in collaboration with Pan American Airways and issued by the airline to their crews on long-haul flights, was made as an aviator watch.

The highlight of NASA’s 1965 Gemini IV mission was the first space walk by an American. As astronaut Ed White floated free outside the spacecraft for approximately 20 minutes in June 3 he wore an Omega Speedmaster Ref 105.003 strapped by Velcro to the outside of the left-side sleeve of his G4C space suit.

A Victorian taxidermy case of four New Zealand birds by Rowland Ward of Piccadilly sold for an unexpected £7000 (estimate £100-200) at Windsor Auctions (18% buyer’s premium) in Berkshire.

South London auction house decided to press pause but was rewarded with a bumper result

It was catalogued as 18th or 19th century but this 2½ x 3½in (6 x 8.5cm) ivory plaque was more probably a product of medieval Christendom.

Two very different Chinese vases took the limelight at a recent sale Fieldings (24% buyer’s premium inc VAT) in Stourbridge.

So-called ‘Black Forest’ carvings don’t get much better than this walking stick stand modelled as a seated hound next to a tree stump offered by Hannam’s (23% buyer’s premium) in Selborne, Hampshire.

This George I provincial silver coffee pot c.1720, offered by Elstob & Elstob (22% buyer’s premium) in Ripon on August 20, is a great rarity.

In the hierarchy of Royal Worcester fruit painters Frank Roberts (1857-1920) comes close to the top.

At the very beginning of July, Adam Partridge in Liverpool sold an early 20th century Spode cup and saucer to a highly desirable ‘liner china’ pattern for £8400.

Delay due to lockdown turns out to be a blessing in disguise in terms of consignments

This Gauge II steam-powered locomotive below was made by Schoenner, the Nüremberg toymaker operating founded by Jean Schoenner in 1875.

This sailor’s walking cane below displays many elements of the scrimshander’s art: a whalebone shaft carved with spiral fluting, collars inlaid with shell from the hawksbill turtle and a handle carved as a dove from the tooth of a sperm whale.

This 12in (39cm) Portobello pottery plaque piece, c.1820, is a rare piece but one known in a number of different colour variations.

Once the second city in the kingdom, Norwich had its own silver assay office during three periods between 1565 and 1702.