Auction Reports

Titanic specialist auction house Henry Aldridge & Son sells poignant items related to the rescue and recovery ships.

Sworders' latest Design sale included a group of Arts & Crafts items from the estate of the design writer and biographer Fiona MacCarthy (1940-2020).

Estimated at just £80-150, a Queen Anne or George I period needlework sampler sold for £10,000 via thesaleroom.com at Lawrences (25% buyer’s premium) of Crewkerne.

Second sale since auction house move and name change is a British art pottery success

A week after Kinghams’ (23% buyer’s premium) inaugural Moreton-in-Marsh sale of British art pottery, the new Cotswolds rooms enjoyed a big hit in miniature – more specifically this portrait by one of Britain’s greatest miniaturists: John Smart (1743-1811).

Even 40 years ago, when the market for George Tinworth (1843-1913) anthropomorphic mouse groups was in its relative infancy, this 3½in (9cm) model above would have been a bargain at £1.

Intended to keep servants warm in the draughty watches of day and night at the entrances to grand houses, this porter’s chair was bought at Christie’s in 1989 and used in the vendor’s living room ever since.

A double-gourd dragon vase was one of two excellent Chinese pieces to emerge from a deceased Hampshire estate into Selborne auction house Hannam’s (23% buyer’s premium) rooms on May 4.

Bloomfield Auctions (15% buyer’s premium) in Belfast achieved a house record on May 11 with the sale of this William De Morgan vase for £15,000.

This Fijian kava bowl, or daveniyaqona, carved in the form of a shallow figure, would have been used for both the consumption of kava (yaqona – the intoxicating liquor of the pepper plant) by priests during religious rites and to hold sacred oil.

John Gresham was a third-generation member of a wealthy Hull timber-importing family.

John Douglas’ interest in antique base metalware started over 60 years ago.

The choice element of a mixed lot offered in Chichester on April 16 was a Georgian walnut mitre plane stamped for Christopher Gabriel.

Remarkable Birkett family archive sold at Rogers Jones auction reflected the earliest days of organised sport.

From 1932-34 Clarice Cliff was the art director for a project involving nearly 30 artists of the day to promote good design on tableware.

The Annie Marchant (‘Breadboard Annie’) collection of domestic and country antiques offered in Kent on April 12-13 produced many strong prices.

Fifteen furniture lots make five-figure sums as Dreweatts bidders show encouraging confidence

Morphets (20% buyer’s premium) of Harrogate sold a Mouseman bureau for a tub-thumping £36,000 on April 15.

A Mitchells (22% buyer’s premium) sale included selected contents from Greystoke Castle near Penrith – home to the Howard family for over 500 years.

This unmarked teapot and cover, offered by Dreweatts, dates from the first decade of porcelain production at the Chelsea factory.