Auction Reports

These two oak boarded chests, made to similar techniques four centuries apart, were offered for sale recently.

This Scottish Arts & Crafts brass framed mirror, above, is the epitome of the so-called Glasgow Style.

Grisly figures burning at the stake reflected religious background of Staffordshire potters

In June 2008, Canterbury Auction Galleries claimed a record price for a Louis Wain ceramic when a version of the 11in (28cm) Futurist Cat in blue with Amphora factory marks sold at £8200.

The Britains Boer War Army Service Corps Supply Column set is described by toy soldier expert James Opie as “one of the must-have sets for keen collectors”.

Spotlight on honours sold recently includes courageous lifesavers from civilian backgrounds.

Flight Lieutenant Maurice ‘Mark’ Mounsdon was one of only four remaining members of Sir Winston Churchill’s ‘The Few’ when he died in 2019 aged 101.

In May 2019 Spink (20% buyer’s premium) medal specialist Marcus Budgen was entrusted to catalogue the medals of Gunner A Howard, ‘N’ Battery, 5th Brigade, Royal Artillery, one of just four members of the RA present at the defence of Rorke’s Drift in the Zulu War.

A selection of Second World War ephemera with a distinctly Polish flavour estimated at £60-100 sold instead for £7600 at a Devon auction.

A private medal collection rated by Ipswich saleroom Lockdales (18% buyer’s premium) as “magnificent” was offered on May 20-22.

Long before Mirandinha, Faustino Asprilla and Nolberto Solano graced the hallowed turf of Newcastle United’s St James’ Park, two brothers paved the way for South American footballers to play professionally in England.

Simple white Wiener Werkstätte boxes epitomise fine design offered at trio of sales

The sale at jewellery auction house Elmwood’s (25% buyer’s premium) in London on May 19 included a remarkable family archive of antique items.

This late 18th century portrait bust of a gentleman by a sculptor from the circle of Joseph Nollekens (1737-1823) is traditionally thought to depict the prominent British Whig statesman Charles James Fox (1749-1806).

The Our Gang range of Second World War ‘types’ were designed for the Bovey Pottery Company by architect Fenton Wyness (1903-74) and modelled by artist Gwynneth Holt (1909-95). Both were based in Aberdeen in the 1940s.

Sworders’ (25% buyer’s premium) Design sale on May 18 included a record for a wall-hanging by the weaver Peter Collingwood (1922-2008).

Pitched at a modest £300-500, a harlequin set of eight Charles II joined oak back stools was one of a number of successes among the furniture offered at Tennants’ (22% buyer’s premium) Leyburn sale.

For 19th century sahibs in tiger country and bwanas dealing with charging lions, howdah pistols like the one offered at West Sussex gun specialist Gavin Gardiner (25% buyer’s premium) were the preferred sidearm.

Chairs and sofas by Howard & Sons are a pricey niche market these days, largely immune to the varying fortunes of the wider market for Victorian and Edwardian furniture.

Chinese emperors certainly got the message when it came to artistic advances