Decorative Art

On January 15-16 Andrew Jones in Los Angeles will offer over 550 lots of paintings, furniture and works of art comprising the collection of Jack and Ellen Phillips of California.

Collectors of Staffordshire have noted a number of higher prices of late and further evidence of a more active market came when a pair of Victorian Staffordshire flatback figures was offered by Lacy, Scott & Knight (22.5% buyer’s premium).

More than 80 lots of early English and Dutch delftware are included in the collection of scholar, collector and author Margaret Berwind Schiffer to be offered on January 18 by Pook & Pook in Pennsylvania.

Two Herschel family-related historic items – a Royal Society King’s medal and a manuscript memoir – have changed hands at auction and in a private sale.

Dreweatts’ (25% buyer’s premium) ‘part II’ sale of Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art at the end of last year included Chinese export porcelain from ‘the china store of a Somerset country house’.

Long before the auction in Krefeld began, it was clear that the price for a vase by Hans Coper would be way higher than the estimate of €8000.

The most famous of the many silversmiths in the German city of Hanau in the late 19th century was Neresheimer & Söhne.

While Ascot Gold Cups are not uncommon, the sight of two heading down the home straight to a rostrum finish on the same day was definitely rare.

Sir Michael Butler (1927-2013) was part of that post-war generation of ‘gentlemen in the professions’ who chose collecting as their primary leisure activity.

Engraving on Tiffany pepperette reveals the provenance as a princely present in 1879

Jean (1913-92) and Jacqueline (1920- 2009) Lérat were artist ceramicists based in central France.

The collection of the original Troika moulds, referenced in ATG No 2564, failed to find a buyer in our monthly auction in October.

An old family collection of Martin Brothers stonewares, assembled with purchases from the Southall potters in the late 19th and early 20th century, was offered in Cambridgeshire.

A fine First World War silver presentation model of the Vickers FB5 or Gunbus made by Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Company (London 1916) was sold together with two related photographs plus a copied letter of provenance at Dominic Winter (20% buyer’s premium).

In collecting terms it is not surprising that a country such as Australia should have a tradition of interest in English ceramics – factories such as Royal Doulton and Moorcroft have a noticeable following.

Shelley first introduced the geometric Vogue and Mode shapes in 1930 – both the designs of Eric Slater who had worked at the factory since the end of the First World War.

The Birmingham silversmithing firm of Hukin & Heath received the approval of the progressive (if slightly pompous) writers of The Furniture Gazette when it signed a big name to produce some of its designs in 1878.

A pottery has stood in the Welsh village of Ewenny for five centuries but, with a few exceptions, the collecting market does tend to focus on the decorative slipwares produced under the influence of the Arts & Crafts movement.