Decorative Art

Only a handful of companies have created products with sufficient impact that their brand names become generic descriptions for objects of their type.

The record for American ceramics – previously held by Salisbury’s Woolley & Wallis – was smashed this month by a ‘Dave the Slave’ jar.

The Robin Simpson (1940-2020) collection of British commemorative ceramics comes for sale next month.

Along with its Summer Fine Art sale, Tennants held a jewellery, watches and silver sale on July 17.

Eight phone bidders competed for this splendid ebony and pietra dura table casket offered at a recent auction at Claydon Auctioneers in Middle Claydon, Buckinghamshire.

Distinctive steeple cups are scarce but an Elizabethan silver example came to market at a Somerset auction house

A snuff box believed to have been gifted by Lord Nelson to his personal secretary during a dinner party attended by Emma Hamilton has been sold by Paul Fraser Collectables for £45,000.

A silver sale at Woolley & Wallis (25/12% buyer’s premium) this summer included a selection of 24 snuff boxes from the Lion collection – as published in 'British Silver Boxes 1640-1840, The Lion Collection' (2015).

Thomaston Place is holding one of its extensive multi-discipline summer sale over three days from August 27-29 featuring a wide mix of American, European and Asian paintings, furnishings and objects.

The latest Welsh sale at Rogers Jones in Cardiff – topped by a record price for a Sir Kyffin Williams picture – included this remarkable early 19th century Ewenny pottery slipware wassail bowl and cover.

A solitary English blue and white porcelain coffee cup emerged from the relative anonymity of a one-line catalogue description and a £120-180 estimate to sell for £4100 at Keys in Aylsham on July 24.

Cheffins’ auction in Cambridge on August 26 includes a silver presentation salver given to Air Vice Marshal James Edgar ‘Johnnie’ Johnson (1915-2001), the highest-scoring Western Allied pilot against the Luftwaffe and the RAF’s officially recognised top-scoring fighter pilot of the Second World War.

Despite a disappointing selling rate, dealer’s collection included notable results

This large 19th century Meissen plaque with an allegory of summer caught the eye of numerous bidders at Metz (25% buyer’s premium).

William Billingsley (1758-1828), a key figure in the history of both English and Welsh porcelain, left the Derby factory in 1795 yearning to create the finest, whitest and most translucent porcelain.

This 15in (37cm) Sèvres porcelain presentation tazza or ‘Coupe Cybele’ was made for the Paris Exposition 1878.