Auctioneers

Aesthetic Movement designers and artists were in thrall to the peacock and its extravagant plumage.

One of the highest prices for a figurative work by Maxwell Ashby Armfield (1881-1972) came at an early spring sale at Plymouth Auction Rooms (20% buyer’s premium).

Held by the same Dutch family for just over 300 years, a very high-grade Elizabeth I gold Sovereign sold for £75,000 at London coin specialist Sovereign Rarities’ auction on March 13.

These two silver lots bear the mark of Henry George Murphy (1884-1939), whose Falcon Studio produced some of the finest English silver of the inter-war era.

Only a decade ago Carlton Ware designer Violet Elmer (1907-88) was a relative unknown compared with her contemporaries Clarice Cliff, Susie Cooper and Charlotte Rhead.

Among the earliest examples of Australian gold rush jewellery are the simple signet rings sold to miners in the settlement of Ballarat in the 1850s as a memento of the boomtown days.

The London-based design company Isokon, which produced furniture by Wells Coates and Marcel Breuer, and Gerald Summers’ firm Makers of Simple Furniture both explored the radical possibilities of lamination.

As the Depression took hold, the clamour for luxury goods in tropical hardwoods, silver and shagreen was replaced by a demand for less expensive consumer goods that combined the modern aesthetic with new materials and industrial production.

Shelley produced the geometric Vogue and Mode shape tea and coffee wares between 1930-32 - both the designs of Eric Slater (1902-84) who had worked at the factory since the end of the First World War.

New Zealand-born architect Keith Murray (1892-1981) began to make designs for Wedgwood on a commercial basis in 1933, joining a stable of designers that included Daisy Makeig-Jones and John Skeaping.

With this year marking the 100th anninversary of the exhibition that gave Art Deco its name, we report on the British designers whose creations appear on the market

The Fine Sale on March 26 at Cheffins in Cambridge included a group of pictures consigned by a descendant of the artist known as Philip Villamil of Jamaica (1814-78).

Graham Slater (1927-2024) was fascinated by relics of Stuart and Georgian Britain. His wife Rosemary shared his passions, including his love of mudlarking, exploring the banks of the Thames for fragments washed up by each new tide.

A sword presented to one of only three Jewish winners of the Victoria Cross in the Second World War has sold for a hammer price of £7200 at Plymouth saleroom Eldreds (20% buyer’s premium).

The Brontë Parsonage was the successful bidder at £32,000 (plus premium) when an original watercolour drawing by Emily Brontë came for sale in London.