Features

The fortnightly Saturday afternoon TV show Whirligig was the first children’s programme to be broadcast live from the BBC studios in Lime Grove, Shepherd’s Bush.

Toys from the Attack Force range are not the earliest of the Airfix models, but they are perhaps the most desirable.

Underlining the nostalgic appeal of the 1970s-80s toys that today’s collectors once played with as children, this group of Action Man uniforms estimated at £40-60 sold for £1300 at the Keys (20% buyer’s premium) Toys auction on July 7.

It’s admittedly not much to look at and just 2 x 3½in (5 x 8.5cm), but if you are a Star Wars collector this badge on offer estimated at £4000-6000 at East Bristol Auctions on July 24 means a great deal.

The market for traditional British and Continental ceramics did not lie idle for three months. As ATG reports, a renewed enthusiasm greeted the first major UK sale since lockdown

This 14in (35cm) early 19th century Liverpool creamware tureen and ladle marked for the Herculaneum factory is transfer-printed in black with portraits of Nelson.

This rare 2in (5cm) English delftware ointment pot, c.1775, carries the inscription in manganese 'The Queen’s Dentifrice'.

The New Hall China Manufactory holds an important place in the history of English porcelain. Active from 1781-1835, it was effectively a cooperative between several Staffordshire earthenware makers, who acquired the Bristol porcelain patent and financed a factory together, first at Tunstall and then at Shelton New Hall in Hanley.

International bidders competed online and by phone against the UK trade and collectors for a group of 18th century Meissen figures offered at Adam Partridge (20% buyer’s premium) in Macclesfield.

The Rijksmuseum was in action at the Drouot to carry off a 9½in (24cm) wide porcelain punchbowl from the Ansbach factory.

This set of 40 Paris porcelain cabinet plates, c.1850, decorated with views of Constantinople, sold for €36,000/£32,730 (estimate €20,000-30,000) at a recent sale held by Dutch firm Oriental Art Auctions (28% buyer’s premium) in Hattem.

Staffordshire flatback figures have been off the boil for a while.

The sale of the Müller-Frei collection of paintings and decorative arts held by Koller (25% buyer’s premium) in Zurich last month included two early 18th century Meissen figure groups that outstripped their estimates.

Large, bold and decorative, transfer-printed pottery footbaths have an appeal that goes beyond collectors of 19th century ceramics.

Pictured here are five from a near-complete set of 41 polychrome terracotta figures of the Danse Macabre offered by Lempertz (25% buyer’s premium) in Cologne. They are typical of the work of Anton Sohn (1769-1841), who settled in Zizenhausen near Stockach in 1799.

This spiral-moulded cream jug decorated with a drummer boy is from a well-documented Caughley tea and coffee service painted with figural subjects by Fidelle Duvivier during a brief period of work at the Chamberlain factory in Worcester in October 1792.

Bonhams will sell the third tranche of a substantial private collection of Meissen on July 22. It includes a number of Böttger stonewares with this 4in (10cm) head of the Emperor Vitellius, c.1710-13, estimated at £4000-6000.

This set of George III silver wine coolers by Robert Garrard, London, 1803, is priced at £175,000 from Koopman Rare Art.

The original Richard Redgrave (1804-88) design for this 5in (12cm) christening mug – offered for sale by H Blairman & Sons priced at £12,000 – was published in the 1847 catalogue Art Manufactures Collected by Felix Summerly.

Fitting delivery vans with showers and toilets was just one of the innovative solutions that haulage and logistics firms had to improvise to keep their vital services running for the art and antiques trade.