Dorset

The bohemian lives of the Bloomsbury Group of artists have long been a source of fascination for the British public.

The collection of Rozenburg pottery and porcelain belonging to the late children’s television presenter John Noakes (1934-2017) was sold at a recent auction in Dorchester.

Suffolk town where the TV rogue ducked and dived experiences an antiques revival. Plus, details of the Long Melford fairs scene.

The Victorian artist John Bagnold Burgess (1829- 97), grandson of a painter who counted Thomas Gainsborough among his pupils, was best known as a painter of genre scenes.

Drawings by two later followers of the Pre-Raphaelites drew competition at separate regional salerooms.

Falling short of ambitious hopes but leading the day at Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) first sale of 2020 was a fine English Golden Age longcase clock.

Found in the roof space of a Devon cottage, an oil painting of a pointer dog in an open field sold for £3400 at Sherborne saleroom Charterhouse (25% buyer’s premium).

Several 19th and 20th century sporting paintings from named estates provided a healthy boost at two regional salerooms.

Items from the estate of the Dame Elisabeth Frink (1930-93) were included in the Charterhouse (25% buyer’s premium) sale in Sherborne, Dorset, on November 14-15.

Included among more than 70 paintings and prints offered at Dorset saleroom Clarke’s Auctions (18% buyer’s premium) was this uncharacteristic Joseph Farquharson (1846-1935) oil of the artist’s garden in Aberdeenshire.

In the resilient Beswick market, collectors paid high prices for some rarities – even modern prototypes – at autumn sales.

Duke’s latest Asian art sale had been headlined by items from a local resident and well-known auctioneer, academic and collector, Anthony du Boulay. The 249 lots from early classic wares to Cantonese enamels generated plenty of saleroom energy and a total of around £800,000.

The old-fashioned country house sale hardly ever fails to cause excitement. The on-the-premises sale of contents from Athelhampton House, a Tudor manor house in Puddletown, Dorset, was no exception.

‘Highly unusual’ is how the Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) cataloguer described a Second World War medal group ahead of its sale in Dorchester on August 22 for £420, just over top estimate.

Last week’s on-the-premises sale at Athelhampton House in Dorset was a near sell-out with a hammer price of close to £1.2m.

Catalogued as ‘witch’ mirrors, this c.1970 pair certainly charmed bidders at Dorchester auction house Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium). The key was the signature Line Vautrin, ROI for the Parisienne designer and decorative artist Line Vautrin (1913-97).

Oil paintings by two significant names in Modern British art made their first appearances on the market in decades at an auction in Dorset.

Our weekly selection from salerooms.