Auctioneers

The auction process is a key part of the secondary art and antiques market.

Firms of auctioneers usually specialise in a number of fields such as jewellery, ceramics, paintings, Asian art or coins but many also hold general sales where the goods available are not defined by a particular genre and are usually lower in value.

Auctioneers often provide other services such as probate and insurance valuations.

2720AB Lays Rackham

Rackham’s artistic vision of Wagner musical work

24 November 2025

'The Three Norns Winding the Rope of Fate' portrays Erda’s daughters beneath Brünnhilde’s rock and was created as an illustration by Arthur Rackham for a 1911 edition of Richard Wagner’s 'Siegfried & the Twilight of the Gods'.

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Big prices paid in transfer market: a Wimpy, Letraset and Star Wars poster promotion

24 November 2025

Extensive themed sale brings a shock result for Star Wars posters promoting a tie-in with burger chain

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Lynch images of a rural idyll impress in Dorset sale

24 November 2025

A group of works by James Lynch (b.1956) brought good competition in the regions after emerging at Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) of Dorchester, Dorset.

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A Seamaster fit for a civilian

24 November 2025

The 165.024 reference Omega Seamaster 300 was one of the most robust and practical dive watches of the Sixties.

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John Minton fishing scenes net strong four-figure prices

24 November 2025

Towards the end of the 1940s and in the early 1950s, the artist John Minton (1917-57) painted a series of works in Cornwall, producing pictures mostly featuring boats, fishermen and harbours.

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Courvoisier portrait watches produced for Ottoman market

24 November 2025

Philippe Auguste Courvoisier (1803-73), a member of the famed Courvoisier family of Swiss watchmakers, specialised in the production of watches with portraits of 19th century royalty, such as Queen Victoria, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte or, in the case of watches sold in London and Stuttgart, the Ottoman Sultan Abdulmecid I.

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Jean Rousseau’s £62,000 tulip bud

24 November 2025

Jean Rousseau (1606-84) came from a renowned watchmaking family that settled in Geneva, the cradle for prosecuted French Protestants in the 1630s.

Marc Allum

News in brief including Cook Islands pole clubs discovery

24 November 2025

A round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days, including a discovery of Cook Islands pole clubs previously rescued from a garden

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French automaton tea drinker rises from a jar to take a sip

24 November 2025

This 19th century French ‘tea drinker’ automaton emerged as part of a single-owner sale at Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) of Dorchester.

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Early example of Explorer black dial boosts demand

24 November 2025

The Rolex reference 6150, often dubbed the ‘Pre-Explorer’, was introduced in 1953 and famously tested by various Everest mountaineering expeditions over the coming years, including the first official summit by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay of Mount Everest on May 29, 1953.

2719 AB Wimbledon1

Elkanah Settle’s heartfelt, personal tribute to (insert name here)

24 November 2025

‘Settle bindings’ are the name given to a small number of surviving books published between c.1700-23 by Elkanah Settle (1648-1724).

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Tractor with bidder pulling power

24 November 2025

This 1949-51 Massey Ferguson demonstration model by Mills Models of Sheffield comprises Ferguson TE-20 tractor with clockwork mechanism, two different ploughs, rubber wheels and Ferguson badge to front of the grill.

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Wheel progress in price terms

24 November 2025

Nine years after taking a premium-inclusive £1375 as part of the The Robert White Collection sale at Bonhams, this Pastilles Valda shop display sales automaton came back to the same auction house in London.

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Tethered model cars take a turn on racetrack and rostrum

24 November 2025

Tether car racing, which began in 1930s California, sounds a strange concept to modern ears but is in fact a hobby still going strong worldwide*.

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‘The one that got away’ from dolls' house expert Vivien Greene

24 November 2025

Some of the earliest dolls’ houses are also referred to as baby houses, although they were more like detailed miniature houses and it is said that the aim was not play but to reflect riches.

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Jewellery sales bring good cheer ahead of festive season

22 November 2025

Auctions with half an eye on the gift-giving season proliferate throughout late November and early December.

pocket watches

Nelson, Hardy and Collingwood watches 'worn at the Battle of Trafalgar' emerge at Spink auction

21 November 2025

Pocket watches owned by Horatio Nelson, Thomas Hardy and Cuthbert Collingwood and consulted throughout the Battle of Trafalgar, are coming for sale next month.

Pascaline

Auction of earliest-known calculator suspended after Paris court ruling

21 November 2025

A Paris court has delayed the sale of the earliest-known calculator.

Carter Oliver boxing painting

Rare piece of boxing history packs a punch at eight times estimate

20 November 2025

A rare visual record of a ‘legendary’ boxing match that took place in Gretna Green in 1816 drew a strong contest itself at an auction in North Yorkshire

Charles Édouard Delettrez

International hires and expansion – the latest updates from auction houses and advisory firms

20 November 2025

Our latest selection of moves, appointments and industry developments in the world of art and antiques

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