Decorative Art

Stephen Kalms set up his antique silver business in The London Silver Vaults in 1991. He specialises in 18th-20th century works, particularly Victorian and Edwardian pieces up to the present.

Rare examples of early English porcelain are still capable of remarkable sums.

Last November, Lempertz in Cologne held a successful sale of 19th century porcelain from the so-called Twinight Collection, amassed from 1994 by the New York businessman Richard Baron Cohen.

On April 13 Skinner in Boston is holding one of its periodic sales of European furniture, silver and ceramics. Wedgwood is almost always a feature of these auctions and the latest is no exception.

A selection of five pieces of Clarice Cliff offered at different price levels at Woolley & Wallis on March 20 .

Silver across five centuries caught the eye at provincial sales in February.

In the latest of our occasional series of collector interviews, we talk to Ian Harvey, 74, a retired chartered accountant who has been collecting all his adult life.

Porcelain from five private collections features in a special exhibition on the stand of Jupiter Antiques at this month’s Chelsea Antiques Fair.

As reported in this week’s Dealers’ Diary, Jupiter Antiques is holding the first spring exhibition in its 35-year history. It takes place within an outside organised event (Penman Fairs), The Chelsea Antiques Fair. Five collections feature, including hundreds of pieces put together by the late Dr Trevor Darling, who died last year. Ahead of the fair Jupiter Antiques has paid tribute to him.

Familiar striking shapes and bright colours retain a strong following despite a fall in demand from the 1980s-90s heyday.

Rather sparsely catalogued, this unusual 14in (36cm) Lalique glass dish with a lovebirds design had emerged from a local unpaid storage unit into Hannam’s (23% buyer’s premium) February 18-20 sale in Selborne. Given a here-to-sell estimate of £150-200, it took £4200.

The plethora of single-collection sales at the start of the year was not at the expense of old-fashioned auctions offering good-quality offerings across the range of dealing and collecting – such as the Winter Fine Arts sale at Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) of Dorchester.

Two Victorian stained-glass and leaded window panels entered by the same vendor trebled the estimates in selling to the same UK online bidder at Special Auction Services (17.5% buyer’s premium) on February 5.

Plenty of French art glass features in Woody Auction’s March 9 sale in Douglass, Kansas, including this bowl by Daum.

This exceptional candlestick belongs to a small group of cast and enamelled brass wares made in the second half of the 17th century. All are distinguished by their method of production: unlike champlévé or cloisonné decoration, the enamelled fields were cast in the mould.

The sale of two great collections at auction – one in London, the other in New York – has highlighted the ebbs and flows of the market for early British pottery and furniture.

Three lots selling for multi-estimate sums at regional auctions in the UK including a Staffordshire slipware honey pot from c.1700 that drew demand at Woolley & Wallis of Salisbury.