London

A small auction house in Ruislip has shattered the world auction record for a Chinese work of art by taking £43m for a vase consigned to their warehouse auction room as part of a house clearance from a bungalow in Pinner.

THE record-breaking Ruislip yang cai vase, is distinctive for its reticulated double-walled construction, combines various differing decorative elements in a manner typical of Tang Ying's directorship of the Imperial manufactory at Jingdezhen during the early years of the reign of the Qianlong emperor – a period of remarkable technical achievement.

The Antiques Trade Gazette Awards for the two outstanding works of art on sale during Asian Art in London were presented at the crowded Gala Party held at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

BONHAMS withdrew 16 lots, with a combined top estimate in excess of £200,000, from last Wednesday’s Bond Street furniture sale after they had good reason to believe the consignor was connected with disgraced ex-BADA dealer John Hobbs.

“I LOOK upon [it] with equal amazement, as I do upon St. Paul’s Cathedral; each the work of one man, each the work of an Englishman”.

IN a week when the 1968 European Cup winner’s medal awarded to George Best sold for £130,000, the appearance of more blue-chip sporting memorabilia on the auction market has been announced.

AN interest in wine and a holiday to Britain 49 years ago led New Englanders Alden and Connie Lank to their first silver wine labels.

Until May this year it was still in the ground in a Cumbrian field. Just five months later it was under the auctioneers’ hammer. Last week this Roman bronze cavalry parade helmet dating from the 1st-2nd century AD, sold for £2m (plus premium) to an anonymous UK private telephone bidder.

WHILE the sale of artworks and ephemera formerly owned by the Lehman Brothers bank had a strange attraction for souvenir hunters and contemporary art dealers, it was, perhaps more surprisingly, also of interest for enthusiasts of marine art.

A RARE East Anglian Iron Age gold torc dating from c.150-50BC, thought to have been discovered in the Diss area of Norfolk around 1942, sold for £44,000 (plus premium) in Spink's latest sale of coins and medals.

THE Ashley-Russell case will be the focus of the next Fakes and Forgeries seminar at Goldsmiths' Hall in London on November 22.

BLOOMSBURY Auctions are to reduce their buyer’s premium when offering the Richard Harris collection in two forthcoming sales.

WHEN auctioneer Mark Oliver climbed down off the rostrum after completing a 650-lot marathon double sale of British art and collectors’ pottery, Bonhams had netted just shy of £720,000.

Bonhams’ latest prints sale in London included a relatively large selection of Modern British works from the likes of John Piper, Graham Sutherland and Henry Moore.

THIS exquisite example of Roman metalwork, a late 1st to mid 3rd century bronze parade helmet with its haunting face mask, represented the find of a lifetime for a Cumbrian metal detectorist when it was unearthed in May of this year.

LA Minotauromachie from 1935 is arguably the masterpiece of the Pablo Picasso's 2000 or so different printed works.

WITH the new auction season getting underway, the London houses have been rushing to announce their star lots as the treasures from aristocratic collections continue to emerge in the saleroom.

AUCTIONEERS Bonhams and Irish saleroom Adam’s have decided to end their 12-year arrangement of holding joint sales in Dublin.

LONDON-based Russian art specialists MacDougall’s have appointed three people to establish an Old Masters and 19th century European art department.

A COLLECTION of Augustus John drawings, consigned by the family of Dame Elizabeth Taylor, will be sold by a West London auction house on September 28.