Decorative Art

An Isnik fritware tile familiar to ATG readers made its second visit to the saleroom last week.

Teapots made in delftware were never particularly functional nor popular in either England or the Netherlands.

Eight different colourways of the classic Whitefriars Banjo vase were offered in a single-owner private collection at Tennants (22% buyer’s premium).

The Five Centuries sale at Lyon & Turnbull (25% buyer’s premium) featured items from Borders property Kimmerghame, Duns, home of the Swinton family.

Provenance adds cachet to a varied selection offered in regional sale after London first dibs

Ceramics by the Omega Workshops rose to unprecedented heights on March 17. The Design sale at Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury included a small collection of pottery by Roger Fry that came for sale from the former Fulham Road dealer Andrew Harriss.

This parcel gilt musical box decorated with a frieze of figures is by Stuart Devlin (London 1975).

This 22oz George II serving dish by Paul de Lamerie (London 1747) was formerly part of the service commissioned by Admiral George Anson (1697-1762).

A new high for a piece of Chantilly porcelain and two pre-emptions for paintings featured in a recent sale held by Daguerre (30% buyer’s premium) at Drouot in Paris.

The London firm Samuel Jackson seems to have specialised in mounting other materials in silver to produce wine-coolers.

The Jewellery, Watches and Objects of Vertu sale at Dix Noonan Webb (25% buyer’s premium) in London on March 15 included more fine silver and enamel vesta cases by Sampson Mordan & Co to add to those sold by the firm in September 2021.

With more than 16,000 works on display, 'Art Treasures of Great Britain', held in a temporary iron-and-glass structure built in the Old Trafford area of Manchester in 1857, remains the largest art exhibition to be held in the UK.

Silver was the major strength of a recent two-day sale at Dreweatts (25% buyers’ premium). All bar one of the 549 lots got away to a hammer total tipping the £1m mark.

An example of 17th century hollowware appeared for sale at Dawsons (23% buyer’s premium) in Maidenhead earlier this year.

Appealing to a range of different types of collectors, particularly aficionados of sewing antiques, Victorian and Edwardian animal pin cushions have their own niche in the novelty silver field.

Estimated at £20,000-30,000, this cast of the Warwick vase by John Samuel Hunt, London 1845, sold for £32,000.

Henry William Dee, the son of Soho silversmith Thomas William Dee (c.1792- 1869), made a speciality of producing silver novelties for Garrard, Leuchars & Son and Asprey’s and other retail goldsmiths. There was real genius here and the patterns for many were patented.

For many years the largest city outside London, Norwich had its own silver assay office during three periods from 1565-1702.

Two stoneware tavern bottles produced at John Dwight’s Fulham Pottery in the 1670s surfaced for sale in West Sussex earlier this month.

Fashion retailer’s extensive and wide-ranging French collection sets a €4m total in Paris