Auction Reports

The highest price at auction for Scottish painter George Houston (1869-1947) in almost six years came at a recent McTear’s (24% buyer’s premium) sale.

Country house auction boasted not just on-the-premises appeal but Guinness and Duleep Singh connection

Hot on the heels of just over 20 lots of 18th century Jacobite drinking glasses offered at Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh on August 16 (see ATG No 2607), more of these desirable items appeared at two other salerooms.

Collector who helped Madonna on road to stardom becomes the centre of attention in West Sussex saleroom

Three-inch globes were mostly sold as pocket globes, typically as a terrestrial globe contained within a ray-skin case with the celestial gores for the heavens pasted inside.

This Japanese Imari bijin was made at the Imari kilns around 1690-1700. She wears a long kimono decorated with apple blossom and leafy branches.

Grand Tour souvenirs often attract attention at auction and the buyer of this lot certainly got a sizeable helping for their money

In the wake of an auction record for an ‘aquarium’ lighter at Chiswick Auctions (25/12% buyer’s premium), six more of the classic Dunhill accessories lit up the saleroom.

A sword that saw action in the famed Charge of the Light Brigade sold for £1900 at Elstob Auctioneers’ (25% buyer’s premium) Antiques & Fine Art Sale.

Anthropomorphic bird jars are typically associated with the work of the Martin Brothers in Southall, London.

Prices for embroidered samplers can vary hugely depending on what specific features are involved as well as factors such as condition and provenance.

The sale of Enamel Signs, Automobilia and Advertising at Chippenham Auction Rooms (20% buyer’s premium) on July 29 included a rare pictorial enamel design depicting the Mauretania at full steam advertising Holzapfels Composition.

This carved marble portrait head of a youth shown here is Roman and comes from a tightly dated period of the 2nd century.

John Eamer was a wholesale grocer who dealt in sugar imported from the West Indies. His success led to him becoming Sheriff of London in 1794.

Specialist Bleasdale says his sewing antiques and Tunbridgeware timed online sales are working out well

A copy of Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy album signed by all four members of the band sold to a phone bidder for £15,000 .

Sporting specialist saleroom highlights include wicket-keeping gloves, bat and even a soup tureen

The Ancient Order of Froth Blowers was a British charitable organisation established in the decade after the First World War ‘to foster the noble Art and gentle and healthy Pastime of froth blowing among Gentlemen of-leisure and ex-Soldiers’.

A highly decorative example of Japanese lacquer provided one of the highlights of Tennants’ (24/20% buyer’s premium) July 15 summer sale.

This 19th century watercolour on ivory portrait miniature depicts Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Seton (1814-52) of the 21st Fusiliers.