Decorative Art

The majolica market may have cooled a little since the white hot days of the 1990s but rarities still have the capacity to command imposing sums at auction.

A recent federal law, designed to preserve the integrity of United States medals and decorations, is creating chaos within the militaria collecting field.

The pair of seven-light brass candlestands pictured here proved to be the highlight of a special themed sale held at Bonhams’ on January 29 titled The Gentleman’s Library Sale.

This enigmatic, 7in (18cm) high, early 18th century delftware plaque featured in Sotheby’s November 21 sale at Bond Street where it fetched a mid-estimate £26,000, selling to London dealer Jonathan Horne.

Aynsley China has a history stretching back to 1775 when John Aynsley first started producing ceramics in Longton, Staffordshire. Its enduring reputation is for its bone china tablewares decorated with floral sprays or fruit in the manner of Royal Worcester, or for its commemorative pieces. They remain very affordable and even Aynsley’s well-painted cabinet plates featuring British landmarks usually cost less than £100.

The 21st century equivalent of an unknown masterpiece brought in to the front counter of a saleroom must be the treasure that surfaces on an auctioneer’s computer via a routine email.

The highlight of the Lowestoft porcelain sale conducted by enthusiast Russell H. Sprake at The Beaconsfield Club, Lowestoft on the evening of October 27 was this rare blue and white birth tablet.

THIS year was the second successful three-day Ceramics Festival held at Stoke-on-Trent in October, which is maybe surprising for a place which owes its very existence to pottery and is regarded by many, most particularly Paul Atterbury, the festival patron, as “the ceramics centre of the Western world”.

AMERICAN folk art moved into new territory at Sotheby’s New York on October 6 when this life-size Indian chief weathervane with a rich verdigris patina sold for $5.2m/£2.9m (plus 20/12% buyer’s premium).

“THE Shelley Group has only one public fair each year and this is its 20th staging since the group was organised back in 1986. This must be a pretty good record for a collectors’ group,” says the group’s Martin Kent.

This early 18th century Channel Islands silver punch bowl, measuring 11in (28cm) in diameter and weighing 52oz, was among the highlights of a 100-lot single owner collection of silver, stored in a Channel Islands bank for over 30 years, offered by Martel Maides of Guernsey on September 28.

ON September 12 – the week the Paris Biennale returned to the Grand Palais – Paris celebrated another notable development on the city’s art scene with the launch of Galerie Historismus at 9 Place de Vosges, the oldest square in Paris.

IN an unusual trade initative, three London dealers have combined forces to buy and sell one of the largest silver collections in private hands and one of the biggest for sheer numbers ever to be offered in the trade.

The missing element in a rare series of vases by a celebrated Arts & Crafts designer has now been located for a Cheshire country house after it was spotted in an ATG advertisement.

By the mid 19th century it had been completely discredited as a science, but between the 1820s and 1840s phrenology was at the peak of its popularity. And Edinburgh, where the first phrenological society was founded in 1820, was one of its centres.

A long-standing member of both the British Antique Dealers’ Association and the vetting committee at the Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair, the late Polly de Courcy-Ireland, who died last year, was without doubt one of the country’s leading authorities on treen. First opened in 1972, her shop in Alresford, Hampshire was a favourite with collectors for over 30 years.

IT is almost 10 years since the noted Wiltshire glass dealers Delomosne last held an exhibition with accompanying handbook, and that was the collection of cordial glasses belonging to the late John Towse.

As if they will need it, some of the lots included in Christie’s June 13-14 sale of items from the collection of HRH The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon (1930-2002) have received a little posthumous pepping up.

Rare and significant works of art from the Old World will just occasionally surface, unrecorded, in the New.

Giving Scotland’s once-neglected art glass further standing in the saleroom, a good range of Monart and Ysasrt glass emerged at auction recently North of the Boarder.