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.

Cypriot jug

Pre-Christian Cypriot jug returns to Cyprus after government intervenes ahead of auction

28 November 2025

A jug dating to 750BC and due to be auctioned at Cotswold Auction Company in Cirencester will now be returning to Cyprus.

Money Laundering Directive

HMRC increases anti-money laundering fees

28 November 2025

HMRC will increase the fees for anti-money laundering (AML) supervision.

Femme Cousant by Henri Lebasque

Henri Lebasque interior scene turns heads in West Sussex

27 November 2025

Works showing quiet and comfortable domestic settings feature prominently in the output of the prolific French artist Henri Lebasque (1865-1937).

A cello bow made by François-Xavier Tourte

Rare cello bow could set new auction record

26 November 2025

A cello bow by fêted maker François-Xavier Tourte is to be offered for sale on December 4 at Vichy Enchères with an estimate of €300,000-350,000.

Red chalk drawing

‘Unknown study by Michelangelo for the Sistine Chapel’ to be offered at Christie’s

25 November 2025

It is apparently not unusual for Christie’s to receive approaches from people claiming to have a work by a great Renaissance master.

Henry House

Henry House to join Dreweatts as CEO

25 November 2025

Newbury auction house Dreweatts has hired Henry House from Sotheby’s.

Triptych

Museum launches funding plea to keep rediscovered 15th century almshouse triptych in Dorset  

25 November 2025

A 15th century Flemish devotional triptych discovered in an almshouse in Dorset is to be offered at auction next month with an estimate of £2.5m-3.5m.

George III parquetry box

George III parquetry box with 72 wood specimens offered at Dreweatts

24 November 2025

This rare George III parquetry box containing approximately 72 wood specimens to all sides and the interior was almost certainly made by Gillows c.1810.

Wallis and Wallis

East Sussex auction house Wallis & Wallis relaunched by long-standing staff members

24 November 2025

East Sussex auction house Wallis & Wallis has new owners after being with the same family for more than 50 years.

Tattoo design

Tattoo pioneer got to the point

24 November 2025

Working in the Bowery neighbourhood in Lower Manhattan in the late 19th century, Samuel O’Reilly (1854-1909) transformed the art of tattooing.

18ct gold pocket watch

Titanic passenger’s gold pocket watch takes £1.5m – setting a new auction record

24 November 2025

A pocket watch belonging to a first-class passenger who lost his life on the Titanic was hammered down at £1.5m, or £1.78m including 22.5% buyer’s premium.

Suzannah Yip

Japanese art expert Suzannah Yip joins Alastair Gibson Auctions

24 November 2025

Leading Japanese works of art specialist Suzannah Yip is now working in partnership with Alastair Gibson Auctions in Kent.

2720 AB Crick Diaries

On a winner in the saleroom with lots relating to Nobel Prizes

24 November 2025

A group of manuscripts that featured letters from 12 Nobel Prize-winning scientists was offered as part of Sworders’ (25% buyer’s premium) Books and Maps timed online sale ending on November 2.

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.

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