Features

Spring is a traditional point in the saleroom calendar for New York to mount its tribal art auctions.

Tribal art is a sector with truly international appeal and fairs and shows go on throughout the year across various locations.

This over life-sized marble bust depicts Emperor Didius Julianus, who ruled the Roman empire for just a few short months in the year 193AD. His fleeting 66-day reign took place during the tumultuous period known as ‘The Year of the Five Emperors’ and came to a grisly end when he was murdered by a common soldier.

This gold ring mounted with an oval intaglio of the Roman god Mars made a multi-estimate £9000 at a sale of jewellery at Salisbury saleroom Woolley & Wallis (25% buyer’s premium).

Although the antiquities market is more stringently regulated than ever before, the possibility of illicit material continues to cause concern for collectors of antiquities. This places a greater financial value on pieces with long watertight provenances.

In the Classical world, the so-called pyxis – a small round box used for storing trinkets, ointments or cosmetics – was often made from wood and other materials, but rarely in gold.

This finely preserved Roman sports mask of a youthful African prince may depict Lusius Quietus (98- 117AD), one of Rome’s great cavalry commanders.

For antiquities aficionados, the pinnacle of Christie’s ‘Classic Week’ in New York was its single-owner offering of 40 exquisitely carved intaglios and cameos hailing from the ancient world.

Estimated at £400-600, this ebonised chiffonier sold for £45,800 at the Mander (24% buyer’s premium inc VAT) auction in Newton, Suffolk.

Special Auction Services of Newbury will offer a painting by French Vietnamese artist Le Pho (1907- 2001) at its May 8 sale.

This Meiji period (1868-1912) bronze of a comical seated monkey, holding an inro and netsuke that he inspects by lifting a pair of spectacles was a recent valuation day find for Fieldings of Stourbridge.

While Sotheby’s and Christie’s no longer hold regular dedicated auctions of European ceramics, they still cater for elements of this market in their main centres worldwide via series of mixed-discipline traditional decorative arts auctions.

Keys’ fine sale on July 24-26 will include more examples of porcelain from the local Lowestoft factory.

Halls’ Country House & Asian Art sale in Shrewsbury on May 15 will include a 21in (54cm) Kangxi famille verte vase decorated with a panorama of Asiatic birds, butterflies and dragonflies.

While dedicated sales of English and Continental ceramics are rarer beasts in the saleroom calendar these days, the traditional mixed-discipline regional sales are a repository for plenty of material from the main factories of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Supplying the market with the fresh, quality material that chimes with current collecting preferences is a continuing challenge for auctioneers working in the Asian art sector.

James Ware (1859-1913), a merchant navy captain, turned to missionary work following his arrival in Shanghai.

A good example of the attraction of a dated and named inscription was evident at Woolley & Wallis’ (25% buyer’s premium) recent ceramics auction in Salisbury.

Robert S Huthart, the Newcastle-born manager of the Hong Kong department store conglomerate Lane Crawford, was first introduced to netsuke on a visit to Tokyo when he was given of a copy of 'The Wonderful World of Netsuke' by Raymond Bushell.

Henry Aldridge & Son will offer items from the Skidmore collection at its May 18 sale – including these pieces of late 19th century Chinese ‘export’ silver.