Auction Reports

This unusual Grand Tour paperweight shown here is made from fragments of Roman mosaic, millefiori, spiral twist and reticelli glass.

Items collected and meticulously recorded from the 1970s onwards by a trade couple had the attractions of ‘dealer’s choice’ provenances when offered at Hanson Holloway’s Ross (25% buyer’s premium).

Overseas interest in tribal art and Doulton Lambeth wares fuelled the higher prices at Cuttlestones’ (20% buyer’s premium) Penkridge sale but it was a new outbreak of cardomania which raised temperatures of collectors across England.

The reassuring news from the East began with the first lot offered at Cheffins’ (24.5% buyer’s premium) Fine Sale when 10 China-based bidders competed for a Republican-era porcelain Putai.

Mainland Chinese buyers bidding on jade, porcelain, wooden and textile offerings dominated the leader board at an Asian & Islamic sale at Cheltenham.

Three lots at Tennants’ (22% buyer’s premium) traced the history of Stan Dodds (1928-2012) – the first and foremost of the Critters.

“Analogous to the Tunbridge ware but of a superior character” was Robert Russell’s description of his work at the 1851 Great Exhibition.

With 207 pieces of silver from the Levant and all points East to China on offer at Chiswick Auctions (25% buyer’s premium), the stand-out pieces were the work of Iranian smiths.

Sailor’s sweethearts or valentines were once thought to have been made by sailors as love tokens during their long trips away from home.

The artists’ enclave of Newlyn in Cornwall was not exclusively a colony of painters.

This early 17th century harpsichord is inscribed to the name baton for Andreas Ruckers, Antwerp, 1614.

Estimated at £40-60, a pair of puce decorated creamware plates sold for a surprise £2000 at Bamfords (21% buyer’s premium) in Derbyshire.

A ‘Jolly Roger’ or pirate flag that records the Second World War exploits of a British submarine flew once more in a militaria sale earlier this summer.

Eighteen works by the Birmingham School artist Mary Ireland (1891-1980) were offered at a recent Lyon & Turnbull’s (25/20% buyer’s premium) sale.

‘The Gregson House’ and its contents date from the early Victorian period.

An English delft drug jar offered by Great Western Auctions (24% buyer’s premium) in Glasgow was both a polychrome and a documentary piece.

Mentmore (Towers) in Buckinghamshire was built in 1852-4 by Sir Joseph Paxton – creator of the Crystal Palace for the Great Exhibition – and Paxton’s son-in-law GH Stokes for Baron Mayer Amschel de Rothschild.

Ninety lots from family’s Norfolk home gave a taster of the traditional items they collected

Swaythling auction includes more than 80 pieces of 18th century English origin

The top-selling lots in the Swaythling collection sold at Christie's were paintings from a diverse range of genres and periods.