Decorative Art

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.

Perhaps the rarest of all Beswick’s output is the pit pony figure Spirit of Whitfield.

Documentary pieces of early English porcelain always command a premium.

A 130-lot collection of studio pottery, featuring many of the best-known British names in the field, both past and present, was the focus of Cottone’s (18% buyer’s premium) sale of the estate of Annette McGuire Cravens in Geneseo, New York on September 22.

The Institute of Charted Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) has acquired a set of four Henry Holiday stained glass windows from Mayfair dealer Sinai & Sons.

The second Royal Doulton figure to buck the generally lukewarm market within a fortnight, a 'Double Jester' figure designed by Charles Noke, was the star of a 1000-lot collectables sale at John Nicholson’s (24% buyer’s premium) at Haslemere on September 7.

Auctioneer hails return to form for Swansea and Nantgarw porcelain at Cardiff themed sale...