News

Art of Embroidery: History of Style and Technique by Lanto Synge, published by the Antique Collectors Club in conjunction with the Royal School of Needlework. ISBN 185149359X £45 hb.

THE 1140 lots of arms and armour held offered by Birmingham specialists Weller & Dufty (15% buyer’s premium) on June 13 encompassed most forms of dealing out death and sparked enthusiasm from a range of collectors and dealers. But the pick of the day was this fine cased pair of 18-bore flintlock duelling/officers’ pistols.

UK: The white marble form of Cara, the Marquess of Breadalbane’s Venetian Greyhound, was the focus of bidders at Lyon and Turnbull’s sale in Edinburgh on June 30. Royal sculptor Peter Turnerelli (1774-1839), famous for his full-length statue of George III in state robes, modelled the 2ft 2in (65cm) high statue for the Park Lane apartment of the Breadalbanes, and invoiced the Countess for £210 in February 1811.

FRANCE: There was plenty of auction activity, but few front-line prices, in Lyon in June.

UK: A TEMPORARY export ban on an important reliquary from the Wernher Collection has allowed the V&A to acquire it with backing from the Lottery and the National Arts Collection Fund.

“WILL SUPERGIRL callously break the hearts of her athletic team mates by winning all the international sports events as her Linda Danvers identity?...” begins the gripping storyline of a 12pp comic strip artwork by Kurt Schaffenberger that sold for £880 in the US section of this online and postal summer comics sale at Comic Book Postal Auctions on June 12.

MAINTAINING their policy of high-content, budget priced sales, the Norfolk auctioneers Keys put up a bumper June offering with a 1540-lot antique sale on June 26 and 27 following a 1236-lot collectors’ sale on June 14. Occasionally there emerges a high-priced star at these antiques offerings but in the quieter days of summer the best bid came for a Georgian-style pedestal birdcage supper table, 3ft 1in (94cm) which sold at £2450.