West Sussex

The windmill cup was the most popular of the novelty silver wager cups produced from the late 16th century until the early 18th century.

An opportunity to buy a portrait of one of Charles II’s mistresses emerged at a recent Bellmans’ (22% buyer’s premium) sale in West Sussex.

Estimated at £400-600, a Meissen chinoiserie decorated porcelain snuff box took £12,000 at Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium) in West Sussex.

Given that most antique furniture at auction tends to be good value only for the buyer these days, one can perhaps understand why it occasionally does not always receive the attention it once merited from auctioneers and valuers. As a result, occasionally a special item slips through.

Bellmans is selling the script and production archive of film director, producer and screenwriter Lewis Gilbert (1920-2018) on November 17-18.

Rowland Leach runs interior design and antique business French Loft with his wife Mary, specialising in 17th and 18th century French and English country furniture.

Incorporating 40 coloured litho plates, a copy of The Last Works of Henri Matisse, a folio collection of 1958 issued by Harcourt Brace of New York, led a sale held by Toovey’s (24.5% buyer’s premium) of Washington in West Sussex at £2600.

A menu celebrating a landmark in British aviation – the first flight from London to Brighton, accomplished in 1911 – sold for £750 at Bellmans.

The sale of July 15 proved to be its most successful since lockdown for auction house Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium).

Combining technical mastery with recurring motifs derived from nature, Pierre Sterlé’s (1905-1978) style is instantly recognisable.

The second day of Bellmans’ (22% buyer’s premium) sale on August 3-5 included a Chinese hardwood table that catapulted way above its £1000-1500 estimate.

A couple of Modern British works on paper drew keen attention at a recent West Sussex auction.

Nine works sold by dealers at The Petworth Park Antiques & Fine Art Fair

The Petworth Park Antiques & Fine Art Fair returned last month with 60 exhibitors and plenty of sales.

Works by Grigorescu are seldom seen in British auctions but one emerged in West Sussex

Thomas Riley was one of the few professional tattooists of the Victorian and Edwardian era and – with patrons among international royalty and the aristocracy – a key figure in the changing perception of tattoos from ‘sailors’ marks’ to ‘body art’.

There was strong footfall – despite the football – as dealers relished the return of Petworth fair

London gallery Adrian Sassoon has chosen the grand country estate of Parham House in West Sussex for a summer-long exhibition of Contemporary art.

A tobacco pipe which opened the series and an opium one which ended it – interspersed by a cigar stub – met keen demand at Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium).

Polymath Gerald Moore’s collection and his own artwork both attract bidders as Summers Place saleroom returns to action