Fine Art

As well as working in marketing for various major fairs and dealers, Duncan Phillips of Somerset deals in his own right, specialising in 19th and 20th century watercolours and studio ceramics

Highest price in five years is achieved for Manchester School and Staithes Group artist

Judging by recent events, members of the Conservative Party might well look back longingly to the days of Margaret Thatcher when Britain’s first female prime minister brought a comparative measure of stability to government.

'Paris Photo', the French capital’s annual fair dedicated to photography, holds its 25th edition at the Grand Palais Ephémère from November 10-13.

Despite wider economic uncertainty, prices for LS Lowry (1887-1976) seem to keep on rising.

Leading the sale of Fine Furniture, Works of Art & Clocks at Woolley & Wallis (25/12% buyer’s premium) in Salisbury on October 6 was a very fine pair of blue john and ormolu perfume burners by Matthew Boulton and John Fothergill.

A number of pictures from another single-owner collection caught the eye at Dreweatts a month earlier than the Flaxley Abbey auction.

The creative roots of this 22in (56cm) bronze figure, which was one of the highlights at Nusser (22.69% buyer’s premium), date back to the pre-war years.

The growing interest in inter- and post-war works by Vietnamese artists - particularly those alumni of the Ecole des Beaux Arts d’Indo-Chine - means that France, as a former colonial power in the region, is well supplied with examples.

Auction firm Art Research Paris will be offering two paintings by the Paris school Chinese-French artist Sanyu (1895-1966).

Since 1969, when it was sold at a gallery exhibition in Munich, one of Niki de Saint Phalle’s (1930-2002) well-known Nanas had belonged to a south German collector.

The complex and sometimes bizarre machines that the Swiss artist Jean Tinguely (1925-91) constructed during his long career belong to the most distinctive examples of kinetic art.

Among the potential highlights in Aguttes’ Contemporary Art auction in Neuilly on November 2 will be this work by Pierre Soulages (b.1919), 30 mai 1981.

The central motif of Antoni Tàpies’ (1923- 2012) Personnage assis (Variation XI) has been the subject of many discussions among art historians.

Naive artworks that can also suit modern decorating taste are rising in popularity and price.

An oil of a King Charles Spaniel by Hugh George Shaw (active 1880-95) is among the offerings in the latest edition of the Armchair Art Fair catalogue.

Frozen River South Esk, a 1910 oil by David Waterson is one of the offerings in Dominic Sanchez-Cabello’s exhibition Forgotten Masters, Enduring Images.

Watercolour given as thanks to his Heinz family host in 2003 now sells to a US collector.