Auctioneers

A couple of elegant portraits from the collection of Professor Bernard Nevill (1930-2019) drew keen interest at Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium).

While the market for post-war wares by Thompson’s of Kilburn – particularly the animal and figure carvings – has grown substantially in recent years, the ‘prime period’ for Mouseman collecting remains the 1920s-30s.

Pictured and described here are six very different lots that formed part of a March 2 sale held by Dominic Winter (20% buyer’s premium).

After 40 years at Christie’s, William Robinson, international head of world art at the firm, bowed out on a high last month.

Cats were represented in the social and religious practices of ancient Egypt for several millennia.

It is with great sadness that we announce the death, at the age of 82, of Julian Dawson, our much-loved former colleague and partner, writes Philip Taylor of Gorringe’s.

Whereas buying at fairs often involves a heavy dose of serendipity, buying at auction tends to be a more focused and considered affair.

This view of the Mer de Glace and the Grands Charmoz at Chamonix was one of two large-scale dramatic paintings of Alpine mountainscapes by Gabriel Loppé (1825-1913) offered in Artcurial’s (26/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) March 23 Old Masters sale. Both had remained with the artist’s family.

A number of portraits of women from different periods of history were among the most contested pictures at sales around the country in the early part of this year.

Bid to £2800 in a recent Norfolk sale was a detailed and now rare Map of the Parish of St Mary Abbotts, Kensington… dating from 1879.

Auction house Dix Noonan Webb (DNW) will be shortening its name to Noonans from the end of April.

An Isnik fritware tile familiar to ATG readers made its second visit to the saleroom last week.

A work described as a ‘missing painting’ by the great Venetian master Titian (c.1485-1576), which was once owned by a succession of European royalty, has emerged for sale at Austrian auction house Dorotheum.

During the Meiji period, the Kyoto artist and entrepreneur Nishimura Sozaemon (1855-1935) used Western mechanised weaving techniques to develop new styles of Japanese decorative textiles.

Teapots made in delftware were never particularly functional nor popular in either England or the Netherlands.

Harry Potter just keeps on doing well at auction, and Hansons (25% buyer’s premium), which has enjoyed a particularly close and profitable relationship with JK Rowling’s creation over the years, had more to offer in a March 9 sale.

Polar material in a travel and exploration themed sale held on March 2 by Bonhams (27.5/25/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) produced a bid of £24,000 for a letter that Robert Falcon Scott wrote to a friend, Lady Goodrich, about his planned British Antarctic Expedition of 1910.

Local appeal propelled a naïve painting of Farnham to 40-times its top estimate at Parker Fine Art Auctions’ (25% buyer’s premium) latest sale.