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.

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Lively furniture demand boosts Lewes and Crewkerne auctions

30 October 2017

With impressive bids from UK, Continental and US buyers on lots from paperweights and 17th century oak carvings to snuff boxes, and surprisingly high bids on fine English furniture, the Autumn Fine Sale at Gorringe’s (21% buyer’s premium) topped the £1m hammer mark.

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Tusk force: Ramsden elephants at auction

30 October 2017

Overshadowed by the £130,000 Giacometti double-sided sketch (ATG No 2314), other pieces at Cheffins’ (23% buyer’s premium) sale at Cambridge on October 12 flourished under the banner of post-1880 design.

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Signature is lost in a snowdrift

30 October 2017

Winter landscape. Early 20th century, possibly Russian or Scandinavian school, and ‘indistinctly signed’. That was lot 222, summed up in the catalogue at Chiswick Auctions (23% buyer’s premium) in London on October 3.

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Time warp reveals a Girtin Windsor watercolour

30 October 2017

The clearance of a neglected local property by Lincolnshire auction house Batemans (20% buyer’s premium) unearthed several treasures including two watercolours by the 18th century British painter Thomas Girtin (1775-1802).

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Exotic Oz musician is in tune at Canterbury sale

30 October 2017

A near-monochrome watercolour by the Australian artist and stage designer Loudon Sainthill (1918-69) sold for five times its top estimate at Canterbury Auction Galleries (20% buyer’s premium) on October 3-4.

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Silk robe garden theme fresh two centuries later

28 October 2017

Appearing to be as vividly coloured as when it was made in the 18th century, a brocaded silk robe à l’Anglaise breathed the style and quality associated with its Spitalfields makers.

Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix memorabilia strikes the right chord at auction

27 October 2017

50 years on and Hendrix still rocks – Hansons Auctioneers has sold a note, written on the back of a packet of guitar strings in 1967, for £5700.

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Chinese scroll sets Australian auction record for Asian art at Bonhams

27 October 2017

A rare Chinese scroll by artist Fu Baoshi (1904-1965) has made an auction record for Bonhams in Australia.

Paul Newman

Paul Newman Rolex sets auction record of $15.5m at Phillips New York

27 October 2017

A Rolex once owned by actor Paul Newman has set an auction record of $15.5m (£11.85m) at Phillips' inaugural watch auction in New York.

Bhupen Khakhar

Howard Hodgkin estate sale achieves £3.65m at Sotheby's auction

27 October 2017

Sotheby’s sale of works from the collection of the British artist Howard Hodgkin (1932-2017) raised a hammer total of £3.65m with 86% sold by lot in its Bond Street rooms on October 24.

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Five goal England football hero Supermac sells his memorabilia collection

26 October 2017

Football trivia time: who was the last player to score five goals for England in a game – but never played for the national team at Wembley ever again?

London to Brighton classic cars cruise into auction at Bonhams

26 October 2017

Fancy owning one of the earliest vehicles on the road and racing it down to Brighton? Now’s your chance as more than 20 vintage cars, many restored and fit to compete in the 120-year old veteran run, are to be sold in early November.

Bennett

Charity art auction raises more than £100,000 for a national centre for Thomas Gainsborough

26 October 2017

Works by artists Antony Gormley and Maggi Hambling were among 130 lots sold at auction to raise more than £100,000 to create a national centre for the artist Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88) in Sudbury.

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Former CSK specialist Simon Green now a consultant to The Pedestal auction house

25 October 2017

Another specialist who used to be at the former Christie’s South Kensington saleroom has found a new role in the auctions world.

Lizzie Borden

Lizzie Borden auction lot recalls infamous New England axe murder trial

25 October 2017

'No, you can't chop your Poppa up in Massachusetts', the refrain from a once hugely popular song, and the verse from a skipping-rope rhyme with which this article ends, both derive from the controversy that continues to this day regarding one of America's most famous murder trials – and to a legal document sold on October 19 by Heritage Auctions of Dallas.

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The weird, wacky and sometimes wonderful at auction

25 October 2017

“A disgusting object” that may be of “some whimsical interest to an obsessive collector” is how Auberon Waugh described a telescopic ear trumpet as used by his father in his later years. Disgusting he may have regarded it, but far more palatable to auctioneers and dealers are the prices of such objects that collectors are prepared to pay.

Soutter

The UK’s largest collection of Outsider art sets records at Newcastle auction

24 October 2017

Newcastle auction house Anderson & Garland has set a number of new artist records following the sale of the UK’s largest collections of Outsider art.

The Goldfish Pool at Chartwell

Churchill’s final painting heads to auction at Sotheby’s

24 October 2017

The final artwork by Sir Winston Churchill is to be offered at auction with a £50,000-80,000 estimate.

Titanic letter

Last known letter written aboard the Titanic sells for £100,000 at auction

23 October 2017

The last known letter written on the Titanic by a victim before it sunk in the Atlantic in 1912 has set an auction record for a letter from the doomed ship.

Vilhelm Hammershøi interior scene

Sotheby’s to offer Hammershøi painting in Imps & Mods auction in New York

23 October 2017

Is demand for the great Dane becoming more international? Works by the Danish painter Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864-1916) typically feature in 19th century European art sales but Sotheby’s have selected an Impressionist & Modern Art evening auction in New York for its latest offering.

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