Auction Reports

This Mamluk-style pottery basin decorated with a band of kufic script is in fact the creation of ‘father of art pottery’ Frenchman Theodore Deck (1823-91).

Memorabilia relating to members of a pioneering elite group of female pilots who flew in the Second World War soared over estimates at two auction houses.

‘Exceptional’ Victorian piece that made £56,000 leads a look at recent notable sale results.

A recent sale at Franklin Browns (18% buyer’s premium) in Edinburgh on included one of the most ambitious and most desirable of all early 19th century Staffordshire figure groups: the 'Polito’s Menagerie of the wonderful burds and beasts from most parts of the world'.

When the Bolshevik government took control of the Imperial Porcelain Factory following the October Revolution of 1917, large quantities of glazed but unpainted white hard-paste porcelain plates, cups and saucers remained at the site.

Bonhams has a long tradition of single-owner sales devoted to noted collections of early English porcelain.

The rules of kriegsspiel (war game), popular at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, were partly based on the much older game of chess. Typically, kriegsspiel was played across three boards, with players only knowing the position of their own pieces and an umpire officiating.

A collection of English pottery offered by Adam Partridge (20% buyer’s premium) in Macclesfield included this early 19th century copper lustre and transfer printed ‘anti-slavery’ mug.

The Welsh Sale at Rogers Jones (22% buyer’s premium) in Cardiff included a large section of Welsh ceramics from a west Wales estate.

A London auction offering ceramics fans a treat thanks to single-owner collections and a mixed array leads a look at the market as a whole

The name William Beilby (1740-1819) is typically associated with the best of English glass and particularly the enamelling workshop operated from Amen Corner in Newcastle in the 1760s-70s.

Tennants’ (20% buyer’s premium) Autumn Fine Sale in Leyburn was topped by a pair of verre eglomisé pictures by Jonas Zeuner (1727-1814).

Once dismissed as a mere Hans Coper follower, the studio potter is now in rising demand

A recent fine art auction at Hansons (25% buyer’s premium) included a once magnificent Qianlong (1735-99) copper-red and underglaze blue lantern vase.

Petrol-themed enamel signs do not get much better than that made to promote British Dominions Empire Motor Insurance in c.1912.

Estimated at £800-1000 at Adam Partridge (20% buyer’s premium) but sold at £10,000 was this International Watch Company Luftwaffe pilot’s watch, c.1940.

Bristol auction house sells mirror with an intriguing link to Marie Antoinette

Australian species pack into a Rowland Ward taxidermy tableau sold for £4000 in Guernsey auction.

Surviving records for the London instrument maker Smith & Beck state this superb microscope from the brass and glass era was purchased on September 2, 1853, by Francis Herbert Wenham (1824-1908) – the British engineer who became a key figure in the improvement of the microscope.

In playing condition but with enough problems to be catalogued as ‘sold as seen’, a Nicole Frères brass inlaid music box was one of the unexpected stars of the first three-day sale to be held at Ripon auction house Elstob & Elstob (22% buyer’s premium).