North-west England

FOOTBALL programmes were the mainstay of this mixed book, card and ephemera sale for Acorn Auctions in Trafford Park, but though one job lot of two dozen Manchester United programmes of 1960s-80s vintage did sell for £620, a similar number of single sheet programmes of 1945-46, valued at up to £2000, failed to sell, and for once it was Manchester City who came out on top.

THE policy of these Cheshire auctioneers, Maxwells, to hold a decent sale in January rather than in the crowded period before Christmas generally pays off, and did so this year although, that said, the local associations of the top seller would probably have resulted in a good price at any period.

Furniture was strong at this Cheshire sale at Patrick Cheyne on 26 January where the top seller was a set of eight (six and two carvers) and two near-matching George III style bleached walnut dining chairs.

Buying art as an investment has always been a perilous business. Back in the 1920s during the so-called Etching Boom speculating collectors were prepared to pay hundreds of pounds – ie more than the price of an average London house – for single prints by ultra- fashionable artists such as Muirhead Bone, David Young Cameron and James McBey.

STRONG private interest from well beyond the local area meant the trade, drawn mainly from the North and across the Border but also including dealers from Kent and as far as Holland, faced stern competition at this 1100-lot Cumbrian sale at Mitchells on 6-7 December.

After several years in the doldrums, Tunbridgeware is now much in demand here on its home ground with Bracketts auctioneer James Braxton noting a continuing increase since the Liverpool collection sold in the rooms back in April.

THIS 582-lot sale at Cumbria Auction Rooms on 25 June was quieter than the Carlisle rooms are used to, a fact which auctioneer Howard Naylor attributed to a strong pound and the way dealers are not buying second rate furniture adding: “It’s all down to quality and condition.”

On the eve of the Open Golf Championship every old swinger in the global village pitches up to the series of golfing memorabilia sales held in Chester and London on July 15 & 16.

IT is rare for childhood toys to emerge from years of love and affection unscathed by the ravages of time but a Kidderminster vendor was rewarded for the care taken with the 1960s battery operated robot, pictured, which came under the hammer at the Chester rooms of Halls (15 per cent buyer’s premium) on June 27.

Golf fans will acknowledge the significance of this contraption, only the third wooden gutty cutter to ever have appeared at auction.

Foot and Mouth continues to ravage the businesses of Cumbria, but local private buyers and dealers had the capital to make a sizeable contribution to this monthly sale on the county’s west coast at Mitchells, Cockermouth.

UK: ONE hundred and seventy five years of independent ownership is an awe-inspiring feat in an antiques market that has changed beyond recognition in the past decade. But this Manchester firm has moved with the times by issuing digital photographs and publishing their catalogue on the Internet.

UK: A HAMMER total of £94,350 from the 91 pieces to get away among the 109 offerings was an excellent start to the month when the Chester rooms could offer some real quality on a day dedicated to clocks and barometers.

UK: MEDALS took the top three slots in this toys, juvenilia and ephemera sale but there was a healthy take-up for toys from collectors and from a couple of Liverpool-based specialist dealers at this 537-lot auction that netted Biddle & Webb around £25,000.

UK: THE football season may now have ended but back on April 24 when the Chester rooms of Phillips (15 per cent buyer’s premium) held their bi-annual sporting sale the season was at its height.

UK: Some fishermen claim that pike have an appetite for human flesh – the elderly members of a crown green bowling club in Warrington say this stuffed and mounted 201b monster has been responsible for several fatalities among their anoraked colleagues in recent years.

UK: SMALLER than usual at 412 lots – the Sussex floods earlier in the year having distracted potential vendors – the March sale at Henry Adams’ Chichester rooms was nevertheless strong on quality, which is what buyers want.

UK: AMONG the spicier silver prices realised at Manchester-based Capes Dunn’s February sale of jewellery, silver, plated wares, watches and gold coins, were a small cylindrical nutmeg grater with pull-off domed lid and two ribbed girdles.

UK: THE current strength of the market for anything by L.S. Lowry (1887-1976) has often been reported in these pages. On February 23 it was the turn of Chichester auctioneers Strides (15 per cent buyer’s premium) to experience the lure of the Salford-born artist when Old houses, the 15 by 19in (38 x 48cm) oil on plywood shown here, came under the hammer.

UK: “THIS was a small working sale with no astounding lots”, said Cheshire auctioneer Patrick Cheyne (12.5 per cent buyer’s premium) of his 378-lot sale in Altrincham on January 19, but there was one entry which did create plenty of interest.