Auctioneers

A William Nicholson (1872-1949) portrait drew admirers at Thomas R Callan (17.5% buyer’s premium) on November 19 as it was hammered down for £150,000.

Lee Young, Asian art specialist and international director at Lyon & Turnbull, is joining Duke’s of Dorchester in December. He will assume the role of managing director.

Estimated at £12,000-18,000, this impressive pair of Regency four-light candelabra dipped just under hopes to sell for £11,500 at Fellows in Birmingham.

A fine pair of Victorian figural table salts in the form of sea maidens on the back of dolphins sold for £4900 (estimate £1500-2000) at Wootton Auction Rooms in Gloucestershire on October 17. Weighing 33oz, they carry marks for John Wilmin Figg, London 1841.

The last remnants of Mallett’s stock, including a clutch of 18th century pictures, were offered in a final sale in Berkshire on November 8.

Entered into the October 21 sale at Bishop & Miller (18% buyer’s premium) by a Suffolk vendor thinning out his collection, these carved boxwood nutcrackers, right, made an immediate impact on bidders at the Stowmarket rooms.

Maidenhead auction house Dawson’s is dipping a toe into the world of design with a dedicated sale on December 2.

The Canterbury Auction Galleries included this George IV silver vinaigrette by John Lawrence & Co, Birmingham, decorated with a view of St Peter’s Church, Brighton. It sold to an Australian internet bidder for £2300.

It is possible to have too much of a good thing in a narrow collecting market – a feature amplified when the leading player has left the field.

Sotheby’s posted a record for the artist CRW Nevinson on November 21 when an important Great War scene was knocked down at £1.55m (£1.87m including premium).

The dual appeal of Maltese silver lies in both a sense of national pride and a very limited supply.

Natural history works, together with books, prints, even pictures featuring aspects of hunting, were a key component of a Sotheby’s (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) sale of November 2 billed only as The Library of a European Gentleman.

An extraordinary example of British avant-garde clothing made on the eve of the First World War will be offered at auction in Oxford next month.

The sale of a comprehensive collection of Channel Islands silver in Guernsey provides a perfect opportunity to test the market temperature...

Wright Marshall (21% buyer’s premium) featured a still-life by John Pawle (1915-2010) in its sale on October 28 in Knutsford, Cheshire.

This painting of a flower market in Paris (below) by the Australian artist Ethel Carrick-Fox (1872-1952) took top honours at The Cotswold Auction Company (20% buyer’s premium) in Cheltenham on November 14.