Decorative Art

Judith Howard (1945-2019), collector, part-time dealer, museum curator, author, TV expert and lecturer, was a self-confessed ‘maximalist’. Every shelf and wall space in her Wiltshire end-of-terrace was there to be filled. Dusting was a chore reserved for just one day a year.

A good range of 18th and 19th century English ceramics is included in Skinner’s February 14 sale of European furniture and decorative arts in Boston.

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

A key feature of the ceramics section of Dreweatts’ sale on February 19 will be 55 lots from a local private collection featuring 18th century English porcelain.

Rare 18th century French silver from the golden age of production was a feature of the collection of Renée and Louis Biron offered by Ader (28% buyer’s premium) at Drouot in Paris.

The opening lot of the Five Centuries sale at Lyon & Turnbull (25% buyer’s premium) in Edinburgh on February 5 was this previously unrecorded maiolica handled and spouted wet drug jar.

Solo Antiques offers a selection of French Daum landscape cameo glass pieces at Stonyhurst College Antiques & Fine Art Fair this month.

A sizeable helping of English and Continental ceramics featured in the large auction titled Mario Buatta: Prince of Interiors held by Sotheby’s New York (25/20/13.9% buyer’s premium).

Caughley Porcelain was founded in Shropshire (at Broseley) so it is hardly surprising that local saleroom Halls has been offering its fair share of consignments from this 18th century factory whose wares rivalled those of the Staffordshire potteries and Worcester in particular.

One of the highest prices of 2019 achieved by French auction house Beaussant Lefèvre (27% buyer’s premium inc VAT) was the €310,000 (£262,710) paid for this impressively tall 4ft 1in (1.25m) high pair of gilt bronze mounted, footed and covered vases.

On March 2 in Thurcroft, Rotherham, Paul Beighton will offer the second instalment of the Rowley collection of Rockingham pottery and porcelain produced locally in nearby Swinton in the first half of the 19th century. The collection was some 20 years in the making and comprised just over 120 pieces in total.

A coffee service decorated in the round by William Powell was one of a quartet of early 20th century Royal Worcester offerings to go way above estimate, largely fuelled by bidding from Vietnam, at Fieldings (20% buyer’s premium).

Although outwardly simple objects, cedar ‘bent corner’ chests, still made today by the indigenous people of the Pacific North West, employ a number of sophisticated woodworking techniques.

A spectacular cache of sealed 17th century bottles unearthed by workmen in Worcestershire will come to auction this year.

On the death of the monarch, or when a statesman left office, it was required by law that any seals of royal authority be broken and defaced.

This opal, diamond, enamel and 18ct yellow gold choker, c.1898, is textbook René Lalique (1860-1945).

When he was only 20, the French sculptor Jules Moigniez exhibited one of his works at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1855.

This Doulton Lambeth terracotta plaque by George Tinworth will be included in the ceramics section of Skinner’s February 14 sale of European furniture and decorative arts in Boston.

Highlight literally and metaphorically of the Woolley & Wallis sale on January 8 was a pair of ormolu and hardstone-mounted candelabra, superb in themselves and packed with French royal history.