Auction Reports

The field encompassed by ‘Design’ sales is being diligently tilled by many UK auctioneers aware of the potential of a market appealing to younger buyers wary of traditional antiques.

Two aspects of soldiering – a touch of glamour and life at the deadly sharp end – were illustrated in two lots at a Tennants (18.5% buyer’s premium) antiques and militaria sale at Leyburn.

Catalogued as early English, this slipware dish above had all the qualities of the combed decoration earthenware baking, or loaf, dishes produced in the late 18th to early 19th century and took the top price at Mitchells (20% buyers premium) of Cockermouth.

Best of 193 lots of film posters which made up a specialist sale at Burstow Hewett (15% buyer’s premium) at Battle was this variation for the classic movie The Maltese Falcon.

Enhancing a growing reputation at Edinburgh auction house Thomson Roddick (17.5% buyer’s premium) for optical instruments, a recent sale included 18 lots of binoculars and the like.

Found by a dog walker in a roadside skip, this remarkably intact Victorian majolica teapot found the ideal bidder at Brighton General Auctions (15% buyer’s premium).

Although much less fashionable than they were, a set of silver candlesticks can nonetheless prove solid sellers as did these four, above, at Mallams’ (20% buyer’s premium) sale in Oxford on August 23.

Called shuttles, but a world away from Blake’s dark satanic mills, the two sewing tools illustrated here were hand tools used by elegant ladies doing polite tatting work. The use of luxury materials was designed to reflect their status.

Breathing quality, this 22ct gold, pocket watch, below, was by an apparently unrecorded maker but nevertheless pitched at a positive £3000-3200 at Tamlyns’ (18% buyer’s premium) sale at Bridgwater on August 30.

The slow, but observable, return of competition for fine Japanese works of art was evident at Hannam’s (20% buyer’s premium) of Selborne on August 23 in the form of this large Meiji ivory scholar’s table screen, below.

By serendipity rather than design, Dawson’s (20% buyer’s premium) August 26 sale in Maidenhead, Berkshire, included several fine Indian works of art. Just the type of entries appealing to a broad and informed audience that can help put a fledgling saleroom on the map (Dawson’s held its first sale this January).

Topping the 175 toys at David Lay’s (15% buyer’s premium) sale at Penzance on August 22, was this 1930s clockwork tinplate Krazy Kar marked By Permission Walt Disney – Mickey Mouse Ltd to the rear and Made in England to the left-hand side.

So much more successful than their 18th century forebears, today’s Jacobites go from strength to strength.

A 1920s-30s 18ct gold Cartier cigarette lighter-cum-watch with black enamel dial was offered at Boningtons (17.5% buyer’s premium) at Epping on August 21.

Shown here is the central medallion of a patchwork and appliqué quilt believed to have been produced by some patriotic sewer to mark the 1815 marriage of Princess Charlotte, the Prince Regent’s daughter, to Prince Leopold of Saxe- Coburg-Gotha.

Originally considered just another 20th century burr oak tallboy among a stack of material from a house clearance brought into the Hazel Grove rooms of Maxwells (15% buyer’s premium), opinions changed when a carved mouse was noticed on the lower left leg.

“Like a country house in miniature,” enthused Jody Beighton speaking of a two-bedroom Georgian cottage whose contents he and its owner catalogued before the August 19 sale at Paul Beighton (17.5% buyer’s premium).

A cavalry guidon (pennant) from the late 18th century is always likely to be rare – and rarer still if it is painted rather than embroidered.

Not quite perfect but always likely to exceed the £300-350 estimate, a Lalique powder bowl was one of the top sellers at Bamfords’ (19.5% buyer’s premium) August 2 sale at Derby.

With everything buzzing at Chiswick Auctions (22% buyer’s premium) ahead of the opening of the South Kensington showroom next week (see last week’s ATG No 2305), life at the west London rooms goes on providing a solid base for this ambitious expansion.