Decorative Art

Included in Morphy Auctions’ fine and decorative arts sale to be held in Denver, Pennsylvania, on July 14-15 is a selection of scent bottles made by the Stourbridge firm of Thomas Webb.

The summer fine art antiques and jewellery auction to be held by Case Antiques in Knoxville, Tennessee, on July 11-12 will include this George III silver epergne by Thomas Pitts I.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

This 19th century, c.1860, gilt bronze and cut-glass comport will feature in Roland Auctions’ June 27 Estates sale at Glen Cove, New York.

In 1765 the engineer and entrepreneur Matthew Boulton (1728-1809) visited Paris, where he observed first-hand the workshops of bronziers and the wares that were proving hugely popular with Georgian Britain’s elite.

Friedrich Goldscheider (1845-97) is famous for founding the Goldscheider ceramics factory which was set up in Vienna in 1885.

As the implementation of the Ivory Act 2018 draws closer, it is approaching closing time at the last-chance saloon for UK owners who wish to monetise Art Deco chryselephantine sculpture.

Sotheby’s Paris (25/20/13.9% buyer’s premium) reported a cumulative total of €5.4m for the five online sales it held over two weeks in mid May through to early June. The initiative attracted new buyers, said the auction house, with 35% in the jewellery sale and 27% in the Contemporary art auction.

This 1890s Japoniste-style photograph frame in brown patinated bronze applied with gilt branches of stylised myosotis is by the Paris firm of Maison Millet.

A large collection of Bretby Art Pottery formed part of the final day of selling at a recent auction at Hansons’ Bishton Hall saleroom in Staffordshire.

A recent sale at Lempertz (25/20% buyer’s premium) was held in Berlin dedicated to works of art from Prussia. The outstanding favourite was a gold and enamel presentation box, a gift from the German Emperor Wilhelm II.

Most surviving 17th century brown salt glaze vessels were made in Germany, typically in Frechen, close to the city of Cologne.

In his day, Johann Heinrich von Dannecker was one of the most prominent German Neoclassical sculptors. He was born as the son of a stable-hand to the Duke of Württemberg, but went on to become the duke’s court sculptor.

This 8½in (21cm) Delft blue and white tulip vase below is typical in style and form of the De Metale Pot (The Metal Pot) factory.

A veritable pantheon of Greek gods adorns this partly gilt silver tankard which is coming up for sale in an auction at Im Kinsky in Vienna on June 23-25.

An elaborate late-19th century engraved rock crystal, parcel-gilt, gemset and enamelled silver figural centrepiece made c.1880 by the Viennese firm of Hermann Ratzersdorfer was the catalogue cover lot of the Heritage (25 /20/12.5% buyer’s premium) silver and vertu auction in Dallas.

Louis Wain (1860-1939) is famed as an artist for his humorous anthropomorphic paintings of cats – typically producing several hundred drawings a year. However, perhaps his most progressive work was the series of ceramic designs in which the cats were rendered in distinctive Cubist form.