Auctioneers

WITH buying split 50/50 between trade and private bidders, a total of £84,000 and all bar 84 of the 928 entries getting away, this was one of the healthiest of Andrew Hartley’s bi-annual specialist collectors’ sales to date, on 20 September.

‘SEE NAPLES AND BUY’ is a headline that has previously made its mark in the Antiques Trade Gazette when some Neapolitan scene has tickled the fancy and the bank balance of a determined picture bidder, but it was never more applicable than in the case of the Worcestershire couple who bought the superbly preserved Attilio Pratella (1856-1949), shown right, at the Colwyn Bay auctioneers Rogers Jones & Co (6% buyer’s premium) on September 27.

London marine sales can be routine affairs, but there was a frisson of speculative interest in this unsigned and unattributed 19th century canvas, right, which ended the 171-lot picture section of Bonhams’ (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) October 1 marine offering in Knightsbridge.

SEVEN HUNDRED or so lots were offered in the September 23 sale held by John Nicholson of Fernhurst, and though there were some disappointments – notably the 1776 volume of The Scots Magazine that contained the first Scottish printing of America’s Declaration of Independence, valued at £5000-8000 – almost 80 per cent of lots, big and small, found buyers.

Included amongst the more venerable 18th century flutes, 19th century hurdy gurdies and 17th century harpsicords and spinets that make up the l03-lot sale of early musical instruments to be held at Sotheby’s Bond Street on November 25, is this unusual piece of more recent vintage.

This 10in (25cm) Burleigh Ware pottery wall plate, by Charlotte Rhead established a new auction record for the industrial ceramicist when it sold for £2900 (plus 10 per cent buyer’s premium) at Andrew Hartley Fine Arts on October 8. Consigned to the Ilkley rooms via a local house clearance, the vibrantly-coloured plaque carried the pattern number 4350, a design previously known only from pattern books dated to c.1928-29.

Bonhams weren’t the only London salerooms to be offering a good selection of antique glasswares. On October 9, just a week after the Harvey’s dispersal, Christie’s South Kensington (17.5/10% per cent buyer’s premium) had a mixed-owner 280-lot selection of British and Continental glass to offer as part of their monthly At Home series.

Exceptional quality pictures with truly international appeal from long-standing private collections have become an all-too-rare sight in the provinces, but on October 3, thanks to significant consignments from no fewer than three deceased estates, Mallams Oxford (15% buyer’s premium) were able to offer at least half a dozen lots that wouldn’t have looked out of place at any of the world’s most expensive art fairs.

Exceptional subjects still have the capacity to fetch exceptional prices, as the Bury St Edmunds auctioneers Lacy Scott & Knight (10% buyer’s premium) discovered when this unsigned and unattributed 19th century watercolour came under the hammer on September 20 with an estimate of £250-400.

And now for something completely different...A high-rise flat on the outskirts of Glasgow is not the place one would expect to find works of art by the celebrated firm of Fabergé but that was the origin of the finely crafted photograph frame, right, offered on September 26 by Glasgow auctioneers McTears (15% buyer’s premium).

An early autumn mixed hors d’oeuvres of silver and European ceramics went under the hammer at Sotheby’s Olympia (20/12% buyer’s premium) on October 2. Roughly two-thirds of the 375 lots were devoted to silver and vertu, and the remaining third to ceramics, but it was the latter that provided half of the ten highest prices, including what proved to be very much the top lot of the day.

A NEW company aiming to capture a market that even the top firms have failed to corner – selling high end art and antiques online – are trying a fresh approach. iGavel are headed by Vancouver-based Lark E. Mason, Jr, a 24-year veteran employee of Sotheby’s whose last role was director of online auctions for sothebys.com.

If antique glass was the focal point of the celebrated Harvey’s Wine Museum collection, sold in three parts by Bonhams in the last month, then the first purchase for the fledgling museum in the mid 1950s had been the Pratt collection of silver wine labels.

AMONG the London salerooms offering a good selection of antique glasswares in the last fortnight, Christie’s South Kensington had a mixed-owner 280-lot selection of British and Continental glass to offer as part of their monthly ‘At Home’ series.

In terms of collecting focus, much of the pre-sale attention for the Harvey’s Wine Museum sale at Bonhams centred on the October 1 glass and ceramics auction.

September was football time for two of the London rooms, Sotheby’s Olympia (20/10% buyer’s premium) fielded a 437-lot sale on September 11 and Christie’s South Kensington (17.5/10% buyer’s premium), who followed on two weeks later with their 302-lot offering on September 23.

It might not look much, but the humble unglazed earthenware vessel, pictured right, is believed to be the earliest form of watering pot made in Britain. It’s also the precursor to the metal watering can that did not adopt its recognisable shape until the 17th century.

Leading the sale of vintage fishing tackle and related items held by Angling Auctions at the Chiswick Town Hall on September 27 was this pot-bellied tooled leather and brass creel made by the Yorkshire saddlers Atkinson c.1780.

Ian Turner’s 142-lot collection of Monart sold by Christie’s South Kensington was the largest auction dispersal of this colourful Scottish art glass to date.

AS WELL as their specialist musical instruments and clock specialist sales, the Bath auctioneers Gardiner Houlgate have been holding pioneering bi-annual sales devoted to Clarice Cliff and decorative arts sales for the past eight years.