Decorative Art

This category encompasses a wide range of three-dimensional antiques in a variety of different materials. It includes ceramics, glass and metalware (including silver and plate), medium to small size decorative objects such as tea caddies and dressing table sets.

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Micromosaic panels in two US auctions

13 May 2019

These two 19th century micromosaic panels feature in different US auctions this month.

Sir David Tang

Collection of ‘London’s best-connected man’ Sir David Tang come to auction in Sussex

11 May 2019

Hong Kong businessman, philanthropist and socialite Sir David Tang, who died in August 2017, was a luxury goods entrepreneur who mixed with the rich and famous and counted members of the royal family as his friends.

Rene Lalique glass

Marklin train, Opium War map and Lalique glass figure – five auction highlights that caught bidders’ eyes in the last week

10 May 2019

ATG’s selection of hammer highlights over the past week includes a Marklin tinplate train that went for 13-times estimate and a Lalique frosted glass statuette that sold above predictions.

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John Sandon stands down at Bonhams after 44 years in pots

06 May 2019

After 44 years working as an auction house specialist, John Sandon has chosen to retire from his post as international director of glass and British ceramics at Bonhams.

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Early Chelsea porcelain continues to attract bidders

06 May 2019

A matched pair of Chelsea mugs cropped up in an Andrew Smith’s (21% buyer’s premium) sale in Hampshire.

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Sèvres pot at Drouot auction is one of Versailles pair

06 May 2019

Included in a mixed-discipline sale held in Paris by Daguerre (28% buyer’s premium inc VAT) at Drouot was a Sèvres bough pot in soft paste porcelain.

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Bridgin name adds appeal to Caughley jug at Woolley & Wallis

06 May 2019

A good example of the attraction of a dated and named inscription was evident at Woolley & Wallis’ (25% buyer’s premium) recent ceramics auction in Salisbury.

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Lion and bears give bite to French basin

06 May 2019

The highlight of a dedicated ceramics sale held at Drouot by Fraysse (22.17% buyer’s premium) was this large 16 x 22in (41 x 56cm) early French, Moustiers, faience basin made at the Clerissy factory.

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Painting of a cow at Robert Young's annual exhibition shows rare example of restoration

06 May 2019

In his annual exhibition, Battersea folk art dealer Robert Young offers a primitive livestock painting of a brown and white cow which was once as obscure in appearance as in its history.

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Skidmore collection at Henry Aldridge features Chinese export silver

06 May 2019

Henry Aldridge & Son will offer items from the Skidmore collection at its May 18 sale – including these pieces of late 19th century Chinese ‘export’ silver.

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Dearth of dedicated sales but rich pickings still emerge at multi-discipline auctions

06 May 2019

While dedicated sales of English and Continental ceramics are rarer beasts in the saleroom calendar these days, the traditional mixed-discipline regional sales are a repository for plenty of material from the main factories of the 18th and 19th centuries.

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Worcester dishes produce blinding result at Dreweatts

06 May 2019

A pair of Worcester dishes of so-called ‘Blind Earl’ form was a best-seller in the ceramics section that opened Dreweatts’ (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) spring sale.

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Traditional ceramics head to London auctions in the latest formats

06 May 2019

While Sotheby’s and Christie’s no longer hold regular dedicated auctions of European ceramics, they still cater for elements of this market in their main centres worldwide via series of mixed-discipline traditional decorative arts auctions.

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Bonhams glass and ceramics specialist John Sandon looks back at his life in auctions

06 May 2019

In today’s world when employment fluidity is the norm, it is rare to find someone who had been in the same job and place all their working life. But when he hung up his hat last week from his role as international director of glass and British ceramics at Bonhams, John Sandon had clocked up almost 44 years, man and boy, in the same saddle.

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Table topper at Battersea decorative fair

06 May 2019

A c.1946 Italian wrought-iron dressing table was among the stand-out sales during the spring Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair in Battersea.

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Abolitionist mug draws interest at Lawrences

06 May 2019

Opening the antique ceramics section of Lawrences’ (25% buyer’s premium) four-day sale in Crewkerne was the William Farrar Jackson collection of commemorative English pottery.

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More Lowestoft at Keys includes rare inkwell

06 May 2019

Keys’ fine sale on July 24-26 will include more examples of porcelain from the local Lowestoft factory.

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Saddle up for English horse selection

06 May 2019

The latest version of Christie’s (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) Collector sale in New York featured an interesting collection of equine pottery: an ensemble of 10 large-scale English pearl ware horses, the majority made in the Leeds pottery in the first half of the 19th century.

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Pick of the week: Box pushes sentimentality aside for a siege celebration at Welsh auction

29 April 2019

Although catalogued as 19th century, this horn, fruitwood and bone inlaid oval patch or snuff box offered by Rogers Jones in Colwyn Bay in north Wales is of a type associated with the late 17th century.

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SILVER: Sale of the ‘Mambury Set’ of 10 James I apostle spoons tops the regional spring sales of antique silver

29 April 2019

Satirical magazine Private Eye once ran a series highlighting the fatuity of interviews by supposedly asking famous names their feelings towards spoons, there being nothing more mundane or less worthy of comment. But the appeal of an antique spoon to the cognoscenti is not difficult to appreciate.

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