Auctioneers

Two new international auction partnerships have formed in the coin market, both involving London firms.

Fieldings’ picture consultant William Lacey said he could remember a time 30 years ago when works by Wigan artist James Lawrence Isherwood (1917-89) could be bought for £30-40.

A rediscovered Francis Bacon is to be offered at Christie’s next month with a £7m-10m estimate.

ATG’s weekly selection of items on sale at auctions and dealerships.

Glasgow saleroom McTear’s holds a dedicated military watch auction on September 19. Most entries are from a private collection and include watches from the so-called ‘Dirty Dozen’ – the 12 Swiss manufacturers commissioned to supply the British Ministry of Defence during the Second World War.

Among the highlights of the sale at Doyle New York on October 18 are two emerald and diamond brooches set with stones that display the prized deep green colour concentration of Colombian emeralds.

Although much less fashionable than they were, a set of silver candlesticks can nonetheless prove solid sellers as did these four, above, at Mallams’ (20% buyer’s premium) sale in Oxford on August 23.

ATG’s weekly selection of items on sale at auctions and dealerships.

Victorian landscapes can often be difficult to shift at auction, but a fine panoramic view near Redhill in Surrey by Edward John Cobbett (1815-99) gave a boost to the Boningtons (20% buyer’s premium) sale in Epping on August 21.

A set of four Victorian kangaroos salts made by silversmiths Hunt & Roskell sold for Aus$70,000 (£42,000) as part of the Fairfax collection at Leonard Joel in Sydney on August 31-September 2.

A 19th century topaz pendant with cushion-shaped diamond accents raced to £9000 at Mallams’ Silver & Jewellery sale in Oxford on August 23.

Topping the 175 toys at David Lay’s (15% buyer’s premium) sale at Penzance on August 22, was this 1930s clockwork tinplate Krazy Kar marked By Permission Walt Disney – Mickey Mouse Ltd to the rear and Made in England to the left-hand side.

It was a busy summer for Keys (20% buyer’s premium), who had book sales in both July and August.

This Victorian turquoise and diamond brooch is inscribed verso 'Had Belonged to Dear Grandmamma V. From Mama VR, 14th April 1871'. To Beatrice. It carries an estimate of £3000-5000 at Tennants in Leyburn on November 18.

Fieldings of Stourbridge set a new house record earlier this month when Emanuele Caroni’s (1826-76) marble sculpture of cupid taming the lion sold at £91,000 (plus 24% premium).

Something shocking happened on Jermyn Street in 1966. Among the more conservative of London shopping districts – the place for a badger-hair shaving brush or a decent pair of sheepskin slippers – at a stroke it became cool. The charismatic Italian émigré Andrew Grima (1921-2007) had opened a jewellery emporium.

Jewellery designers of the 1930s and '40s were attracted to Bakelite, a plastic resin developed in 1907 for industrial purposes, as it was both hard enough to cut and polish and available in a wide range of colours.

In May 1789, as the political and financial situation in France grew ever bleaker, Louis XVI was forced to summon the three estates – the clergy, nobility and commoners – who had the power to levy taxes and implement reform.