UK

UK: NEW and old technology were both part of a successful Saturday event for the Surrey auctioneers.

UK: COINCIDING with the recent recovery of Donald Campbell’s boat from Coniston Water, photographs and ephemera relating to Campbell’s famous father Sir Malcolm attracted extra interest at this Devon sale.

Ilkley rooms start the new year at the double UK: AGAINST a widely reported background of a slow start to the year, these West Yorkshire auctioneers got off to such a busy start that the first of their six annual one-day sales spilled over into a two-day event.

UK: HEAVY snow on the morning of this 360-lot dispersal in Northumberland resulted in an influx of phone bids and a distinct lack of private buyers. However, bidding was competitive enough to bring a total of around £50,000 exceeding Mr Dudgeon’s expectations.

Filippo Bonanni’s Gabinetto Armonico of 1723 will be familiar to most lovers of old musical instruments in the form of a Dover reprint of the 1960s, but the engraved plate reproduced above is one of 152 from the Fort Augustus copy of the real thing, bound in contemporary mottled calf gilt, which sold at £3800 to Bruce Marshall.

UK: THE Staffordshire auctioneers are the latest to introduce a Decorative Arts section to their sales to catch the current market trend and, although in this case, these largely comprised the sort of 20th century ceramics seen in most rooms, giving them their own section appeared to pay off.

UK: A rather tatty, plain appearance warranted an estimate of £800-1200 on this George III architect’s table at Neales’ sale in Nottingham on February 23, but its virginal structure encouraged interest from the highest reaches of the London trade.

UK: ILLUSTRATED here is a plan of Aberdeen, one of 47 double-page engraved or litho plans (some folding) from a copy of John Wood’s Town Atlas of Scotland of 1818-26, rebound in modern boards, which sold for £2800 in the Lyon & Turnbull sale of February 17.

Art Deco UK: DANCER of Kapurthala, this 22in (56cm) high Chiparus bronze and ivory cat-suited agile performer atop a marble base, provided the highlight of Christie’s South Kensington’s (17.5/10 per cent buyer’s premium) fourth Classic Art Deco sale on February 15 when it sold for £32,000 to a British collector.

Ceramics – The Jack Hacking Collection UK: THE JACK Hacking collection of English ceramics, offered by Phillips’ Bayswater (15/10 per cent buyer’s premium) rooms back on January 23, was a less academic, more eclectic property than Norman Stretton’s. But it was not by any means a general collection since it had quite specific areas of interest.

London: Back in the 1860s, long before the days of Action Man and GI Joe, what did a young lad do if he wanted a manly miniature role model, a real boy’s toy?

UK: THERE is a distinctly nervous look about the Dodo pictured here, as befits a creature staring extinction in the beak. This “Facsimile of [Roelandt] Savery’s picture of the Dodo in the Royal Gallery at Berlin” is a plate from H.E. Strickland & A.G. Melville’s The Dodo and its Kindred; or the History, Affinities and Osteology of the Dodo, Solitaire and other Extinct Birds of the islands Mauritius, Rodriguez and Bourbon.

UK: TALES of the glory of Swedish feats of arms have faded somewhat since the days of Gustavus Adolphus and Charles XII but the Swedes went on producing quality armaments and armour as was shown this unusual offering, right, at the January 31 sale held by Birmingham specialists Weller & Dufty (15 per cent buyer’s premium).

UK: FOLLOWING these Surrey room’s Gaudy Welsh extravaganza last November, a further 40 pieces featured in their 500-lot January sale.

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: A CLUSTER of four-figure furniture entries at Brighton saw the biggest price reserved for a set of eight Regency mahogany dining chairs.

UK: Morris sets out his vision for a market. UK: A NO dateline policy for all three Olympia antique fairs is among the plans Andrew Morris, chief executive of Earls Court and Olympia and head of Clarion Events, the halls’ organising arm, has revealed in an exclusive interview with the Antiques Trade Gazette.

UK: FURNITURE provided the bread and butter at Exeter in January where, as so often, dependable sets of dining chairs, tables, linen presses and longcase clocks brought the best bids.

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.

Bond Movie Memorabilia UK: IT WAS hardly surprising that Ursula Andress’s bikini, as worn in the memorable scene when she emerges from the sea in Dr No, should capture so much of the pre- and post-sale publicity for Christie’s South Kensington’s (17.5/10 per cent buyer’s premium) second auction devoted entirely to James Bond memorabilia.