Decorative Art

As regimental silver, the Victorian centrepiece shown below qualified to be part of the Militaria, Coins & Medals sale at Lawrences (22% buyer’s premium) of Crewkerne and, as a memento of the gallant 9th (The Queen’s Royal) Lancers, it swept the field.

Post-war material is attracting growing interest across all sectors of the art market. A pioneer was the Design sale that championed the creations of designers and taste makers from the second half of the 20th century and beyond.

With an increase in exhibitor numbers, the second outing for the reborn Kensington Ceramics and Glass Fair is on Saturday, June 30, at Kensington Town Hall in London.

After a continuous 30-year period of trading, and a stockbook tally of around 10,000 pieces, Paris dealer in European ceramics Christophe Perlès has decided to take a break for a couple of years.

Glass bricks are a common sight in 21st century building construction, but back in the late 19th century they were cutting-edge industrial technology. They were employed by avant-garde architects such as Art Nouveau specialist Hector Guimard and the modernist Le Corbusier.

Hard-paste figures of Russian ethnic characters and workers have appeared at English auctions on a number of occasions in recent years (ATGs passim), generally to keen interest from the Motherland and eastern Europe.

It was only a matter of time before a treasure from the hot new British ceramics market emerged out of nowhere and onto the rostrum in the long tradition of boom areas.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

MADAM – I note the report on the sale of a porcelain plaque decorated with a portrait of the Empress Josephine on page 13 of ATG No 2343.

This Bow porcelain figure of Polyhymnia, the Greek mythological muse of sacred poetry, hymn, dance and eloquence, is among the pieces on offer at this summer’s 'Ceramics Mayfair'.

Bought in a French flea market as a set, seven 19th century salt-glazed fish-shaped spirit flasks were entered into Hannam’s (23% buyer’s premium) sale at Selborne as separate items, each estimated at £80-120.

In the heart of London’s legal district, two storeys underground, lies the world’s biggest concentration of antique silver offered by the world’s most extensive concentration of antique silver dealers. Welcome to The London Silver Vaults.

The London Silver Vaults unites dozens of independent firms – many long-standing family businesses – with a shared passion for the gleam of polished white metal. In this advertising feature, we meet some of the faces behind those iron doors.

ATG's selection of ceramics offered in London this summer.

Catalogued simply as ‘a pair of English soft-paste porcelain models of parrots’, these rare 18th century figures by Bow sold at Thomas Watson in Darlington, County Durham, for £16,000 (plus 24% buyer’s premium) on May 15.

Not, perhaps, the face modern eyes would immediately think of captivating an emperor, but this porcelain plaque portrait of Napoleon’s first wife, Josephine, was one of a number of major attractions at Canterbury Auction Galleries’ (24% buyer’s premium) Spring Sale.