Auction Reports

Boxes such as these fashioned and painted as cottages are among the most desirable of all 19th century caddies and boxes.

Estimated at £7000-10,000, this very rare Bow model of a red squirrel, c.1760-65, sold for £20,000 at Bonhams’ (27.5/25% buyer’s premium) Fine Ceramics and Glass sale in Knightsbridge on September 29.

A small group of Victorian transfer-printed stoneware crocks offered by Taylor’s (24% buyer’s premium) in Montrose on September 16 included a 7½in (18cm) butter crock with the logo of the Lothians Dairy Co of Slate Ford Road, Edinburgh.

Essex saleroom disperses superb pipe collection amassed over more than 50 years.

The white ‘rooks’ to this 19th century carved and turned wood chess set, offered by TW Gaze (18% buyer’s premium) in Diss in August 12, are stamped Calvert 189 Fleet Street to their bases.

Further pieces from English porcelain specialist’s collection are among highlights in Lewes.

The best of 13 Mouseman pieces that sold at Morphets (20% buyer’s premium) for a total of £41,000 was a classic early adzed oak and burr oak sideboard made in Robert Thompson’s Kilburn workshop c.1928-30.

Silver by major names from the early to late years of last century were major eyecatchers at the Lacy Scott & Knight (20% buyer’s premium) 20th Century Design Sale in Bury St Edmunds.

London dealer Jack Webb, who died last year aged 94, was known for the variety of unusual pieces at his Camden Passage shop, but the D-Day veteran’s personal enthusiasm was for militaria.

Backing up his upbeat view of the future for salerooms (ATG No 2444) veteran auctioneer Chris Ewbank enjoyed a 99% success rate at the latest outing for his Sports & Entertainment specialist department.

As heroic a defence against the odds as Rorke’s Drift, and certainly more important, the twin battles of Imphal and Kohima are much less well known.

Just occasionally it doesn’t always pay to catalogue with great depth.

A Beatles-themed sale held by Cato Crane (28% buyer’s premium) in Liverpool last month included architectural souvenirs from St Peter’s Church in Woolton.

The allure of well-priced, market-fresh chattels from a blue-blood country estate can pique the interest of the most world-weary auctioneer or antiques dealer.

This 9in (23cm) Qing blue and white porcelain bowl decorated in underglaze blue with squirrels in fruiting bears a Qianlong (1736-95) six-character seal mark and is probably of the period.

The Japanese battery-powered watches once viewed as cheap and lacking soul are now being taken seriously at auction despite collector snobbery

Perhaps the quirkiest of all of the many Omega Speedmaster models is this one with a cushion shape or ‘TV’ dial.

The Rolex GMT-Master, originally designed in collaboration with Pan American Airways and issued by the airline to their crews on long-haul flights, was made as an aviator watch.

The highlight of NASA’s 1965 Gemini IV mission was the first space walk by an American. As astronaut Ed White floated free outside the spacecraft for approximately 20 minutes in June 3 he wore an Omega Speedmaster Ref 105.003 strapped by Velcro to the outside of the left-side sleeve of his G4C space suit.

A Victorian taxidermy case of four New Zealand birds by Rowland Ward of Piccadilly sold for an unexpected £7000 (estimate £100-200) at Windsor Auctions (18% buyer’s premium) in Berkshire.