Decorative Art

A collection of tobacco leaf pattern Chinese export porcelain surpassed all expectations to sell for a combined £116,000 at Mallams Cheltenham (20% buyer’s premium).

Sotheby’s From Earth To Fire sale in Bond Street on November 1 was topped by a kunstkammer object with a Rothschild provenance.

Next up from Cooper Events is the Pavilions of Harrogate Decorative Antiques & Fine Art Fair, from November 17-19 at the Great Yorkshire Showground. The final edition of Cooper’s three annual Harrogate fairs, it hosts a total of 43 dealers.

Offered at a wider-ranging, paintings and decorative arts sale at Dreweatts (24% buyer’s premium), this Pilkington’s Royal Lancastrian lustre vase, below, would have stood out at a post-1860s design sale.

With sales of post-1860 design a seasonal fixture round the country, an argument could be made for Scottish auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull (25% buyer’s premium) having a geographical edge.

Susan and Mike Hunter of Twists Glass Studio in Selkirk on the Scottish Borders are two of the five newcomers to the National Glass Fair at the National Motor Museum in Solihull on Sunday, November 12.

Stourbridge auctioneer Will Farmer held the first of his biannual Decades of Design sales at Fieldings (17.5% buyer’s premium) 12 years ago and rather wishes he had copyrighted the phrase – now almost a generic term for post-1860 dec arts sales.

Overshadowed by the £130,000 Giacometti double-sided sketch (ATG No 2314), other pieces at Cheffins’ (23% buyer’s premium) sale at Cambridge on October 12 flourished under the banner of post-1880 design.

In a diverse 515-lot sale, finely carved wood and alabaster, porcelain and even furniture took eye-catching bids – but much of the wider market was waiting to see how a large consignment of 18th and 19th century ivory carvings would fare at Woolley & Wallis (22% buyer’s premium) on October 4.

Dominated by two lots of Chinese porcelain, the September 28-30 sale at Hansons (17.5% buyer’s premium) also included eight Royal Worcester pieces by George Owen (1845-1917) who was inspired by the Orient to produce his trademark reticulated wares.

Among the most coveted of all Martinware is the ‘Wally’ bird. These quirky and grotesque jars (really caricatures of people in Victorian London), were produced from the early 1880s onwards and were named after their maker Robert Wallace Martin, one of four brothers who ran the famous British pottery.

The estate of a prominent Jewish art collector has failed to secure the return of a rare Meissen figure that was the subject of a recent export stop.

The Brighton-based Lalique Mascot Collectors’ Club is launching the second volume of 'Unique Lalique Mascots' by Geoffrey Weiner at Love Fairs’ antiques, vintage and collectables fair at Brighton Racecourse on Sunday, October 22.

Part of a consignment from a deceased estate in Totnes, this stoneware bowl by red-hot studio pottery favourite Dame Lucie Rie was a near certainty to exceed the £6000-9000 estimate when Chudleigh auction house Michael J Bowman (17.5% buyer’s premium) received a £20,000 commission bid from Japan ahead of the September 23 Devon sale.

A record-breaking Song dynasty bowl at Sotheby’s. A working ceramics factory at Tate Modern. A new book on Wedgwood. Porcelain and ceramics are much in the news at the moment.

Martel Maides in St Peter Port, Guernsey will sell a massive collection of Channel Islands silver on October 18, writes Roland Arkell.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.