Fine Art

Reappearing in the same saleroom after a six-year interval, a landscape by Edmund Morison Wimperis (1835-1900) attracted attention at Halls (20% buyer’s premium) of Shrewsbury.

Christie’s Old Master and British drawings sale will take place as an online auction from January 14-28.

The flagship event of Sotheby’s Masters Week sale series is the January 28 Master Paintings and Sculpture auction. Its highlight entries are Botticelli’s 'Portrait of a young man holding a roundel' (estimate in excess of $80m) and Rembrandt’s 'Abraham and the Angels' guided at $20m-30m.

Carl Moll (1861-1945) was one of the founding members of the Vienna Secession movement. On February 23 in its sale of European Art and Old Masters, Freeman’s of Philadelphia will offer a painting by him that has been in the same family since it was acquired in Germany in the early 1920s.

Covid-19 has played havoc with the jewellery fairs and auction calendar but it has done little to dull the appetite for quality antique and vintage pieces.

Three works from British vendors were among the most notable lots at Sotheby’s (25/20/13.9% buyer’s premium + 1% overhead premium) latest Old Master evening sale in London.

When the Bolshevik government took control of the Imperial Porcelain Factory following the October Revolution of 1917, large quantities of glazed but unpainted white hard-paste porcelain plates, cups and saucers remained at the site.

A marine battle scene believed to have once been owned by auctioneer James Christie (1730-1803) topped Bonhams’ (27.5%/25/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) latest Old Master sale in London.

London salerooms hope for increased consignments after a difficult year for Old Masters

MADAM – Your report on the export licence stop placed on the ivory and bronze Triqueti figure of Cleopatra indirectly highlights the tragically arbitrary nature of the Ivory Act (News Digest, ATG No 2474).

Closing the year in some style, a patinated and parcel gilt bronze ‘double size’ figure of St George set a new auction record for Sir Alfred Gilbert (1854-1934) at Bonhams.

An important work by Modern Australian artist Russell Drysdale (1912-81) equalled his auction record when it sold at Deutscher and Hackett (25% buyer’s premium).

'Coming Home from the Marshes', 1886, by pioneering photographer PH Emerson (1856-1936) in his series 'Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads', is among the works offered in a solo show on the artist at London’s Michael Hoppen Gallery until the end of this month.

This 1928 ink and watercolour of stained glass for Stockton on the Forest in North Yorkshire is offered at Abbott and Holder for £350.

As with other sectors of the art and antiques market, Contemporary art can certainly produce dramatic bidding battles for under-valued material at auction.

Tennants’ (20% buyer’s premium) Autumn Fine Sale in Leyburn was topped by a pair of verre eglomisé pictures by Jonas Zeuner (1727-1814).

Collection offered in Canterbury recalls the bizarre family life of Stanley Spencer