Auction Reports

Chinese material beyond the headlining world of porcelain continues to boost totals across the UK’s salerooms, occasionally eclipsing estimates.

Probably a puzzle to all but experts in the field, the item shown below is a transit instrument – one of three which all went well above estimates at a cameras and scientific instruments sale held by Special Auctions Services (17.5% buyer’s premium).

Coalbrookdale cast-iron furniture, subject to ebbs and flows of fashion, has dipped a little in recent years, but this c.1850 occasional table is a rarity. It was surely made for the conservatory rather than the garden.

Taxidermy, having emerged in a few years from a dusty, rather unseemly subject to a rostrum hot topic, continues to flourish across the country.

A private collection of more than 30 pieces of Pilkington’s Lancastrian lustre excelled when offered at Lyon & Turnbull (25% buyer’s premium) in Edinburgh on October 10.

If bidders were to be lured to the ageless aspect of antiquities, one might think that a lamp which first lit the darkness two millennia ago would be hard to resist.

Headlines about antiquities today usually follow two paths: either highlighting the issue of looting or focusing on the huge sums treasures of the ancient world can command.

The biannual world tour of tribal lands – Alaska to New Zealand via Arizona, Africa and Taiwan – organised by auctioneer Will Hobbs at Woolley & Wallis (25% buyer’s premium) offered a global view of what is an active, if often unpredictable, field.

What still feels to many like the opening month of a new season got off to an excellent start with some serious, if occasionally unexpected, five-figure bids at four major provincial salerooms.

Figurative art was the other big seller in early September, led by the waxwork of Medardo Rosso’s sculpture Bambina Ridente (see last week’s News pages) which topped a successful week of sales at Chiswick Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) when it more than doubled the top estimate at £180,000.

This pair of Qing vases caught the eye of Hertfordshire auctioneer Richard Kluk when valuing jewellery at a London home.

Two Worcester ‘Limoges’ chalices were the star lots at Stourbridge auction house Fieldings (21% buyer’s premium).

A scarce Meissen figure, but no stranger to these pages in recent months (see ATG No 2349), Count Bruhl’s Tailor rode his goat to more success at Gildings (15% buyer’s premium) on September 4.

Auction house Lyon & Turnbull hails the encouraging return of American interest at its September 5 sale.

An album of 40 albumen images by pioneering photographer John Thomson with direct appeal to the market for early depictions of the Orient was the outstanding star at Hartleys (17.5% buyer’s premium).

One of the more unusual clocks on offer this summer was the late 19th century French ‘devil band’ mantel clock that attracted international bidding at Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium).

The product of child labour – but conscious-clear purchases for bidders – provided two of the top lots at a specialist textiles and costume sale at Tennants (20% buyer’s premium) of North Yorkshire.

UK dealers buying foreign silver, overseas bidders taking British work and generally solid interest for traditional pieces of mid-ranking silver brightened up the normally quieter late summer sales across the country.

‘More affordable’ Lucie Rie lots head a selection of hammer highlights from summer sales.

Pitched at £20-40, a small bisque doll with jointed limbs, below, topped Mitchells’ (20% buyer’s premium) toys sale at Cockermouth on July 21.