Auctioneers

ENGLISH and Continental glassware was also a feature of Sotheby’s June and July ceramics sales. It accounted for just over 30 per cent of the more affordable Olympia offering, where around two-thirds of the 115 lots changed hands, and just under a fifth of their Bond Street sale where around half the 33 lots found buyers.

SOME steady selling of material which has been hard to shift of late provided some encouragement for the trade generally at Lawrences of Bletchingley's (12.5 buyer's premium) July 20-22 sale and among the 2000 lots – which totalled nearly £200,000 – there were enough of those quirky offerings which make provincial British auctions the fascinating events they can be.

IT is frequently the unusual and the decorative that the market craves today. The ‘peach’ of the sale conducted by Kidson-Trigg (15% buyer’s premium) of Highworth, near Swindon on July 22 was certainly both, a group of 14 painted and carved wood and gesso models of fruit, pictured right.

SEEN right is the illuminated title which, together with a full-page miniature of The Annunciation and numerous coloured and gold initials, make up the principal decoration of vellum manuscript collection of Prières et Oraisons Dévotés produced by the great calligrapher Nicholas Jarry (c.1615-7).

HIGHLIGHT of Sotheby’s (23.92/14.35% buyer's premium) book and manuscript sale on June 30 was Antonin Artaud’s 1947 portrait of his publisher Alain Gheerbrant, pencil, 14 x 20in (35 x 50cm), seen right, that made a double-estimate €210,000 (£140,000) to set a record for an Artaud drawing.

THESE two half-length images of women, right, could hardly be more different in date or technique, but their prices proved as uncannily similar as their poses when they came under the hammer at recent fine art auctions.

THE energy with which Spink pursue their business was made manifest on July 15 when they crammed in another sale which has not been part of their auction schedule in recent years. The total take was £250,850 and, although it was a 519-lot general sale, it offered several homogeneous sections. In all, it taught us really quite a lot about the state of the London coin market.

IN 1851 it wowed the world when it won the Council Medal at the Great Exhibition, but for decades its whereabouts have been a mystery. Now, after years of research, Jeremy Lamond, a director of Halls Fine Art, of Shrewsbury, has solved the puzzle of what happened to the first ever exhibition sideboard.

COINCIDING with the run up to the British Open at Royal Troon, Christie’s South Kensington (19.5/12% buyer’s premium) held their summer sale of golf memorabilia on July 8. According to the specialist in charge, David Convery, the auction was “well attended by British based and American buyers,” but, nevertheless, there was still something of a polite hush around the saleroom with most lots barely scraping past their reserves.

THE first outing for Sotheby’s associate Graham Budd Auctions (15% buyer’s premium) offered a large range of sporting memorabilia in a 885-lot sale held at Sotheby’s Olympia on June 9. Football was the most represented sport, contributing to well over half the total number of lots.

ATTEMPTING to tap into the burgeoning Russian market, Tajan (20.33% buyer’s premium) appointed Moscow-born Tatyana Barysheva as in-house specialist last year. She is gradually building up a following for sales of Russian silver, vertu and works of art.

THOMAS Tompion may be England’s most celebrated 18th century horologist, but he is less widely known for his exquisitely crafted sundials, a signed example of which furnished Sotheby’s Bond Street (20/12% buyer's premium) with their undisputed highlight on June 15.

THE Cricket, Tennis and Traditional Sports sale at Christie’s South Kensington on June 22 saw a hammer total of £87,355 from the 163-lot offering. Yet nearly three quarters of this figure came from the two top lots alone, hence the sold by value figure of 63 per cent was noticeably higher than the sold by lot figure of 51 per cent.

CHRISTIE’S have won leave to appeal against the High Court judgment that found them liable to pay damages to Taylor Lynne Thomson in the dispute over the £1.75m Houghton urns.

PART of a collection of antiques from a late Shrewsbury area farmer’s estate, this 8ft 6in (2.59m) mahogany longcase clock made in 1765 by London clockmaker Ellicot was in original condition when it appeared at the Welsh Bridge saleroom of Halls' Fine Art on July 14.

GEORGE Graham’s 18th century ebony or ebony veneered bracket clocks are his most traditional and sought-after timepieces, but arguably representing better value for money was this flamboyant ormolu clock offered at Bonhams Bond Street (19.5/10% buyer's premium) on June 8 that housed one of a small number of George Graham’s non-standard movements.

AS its title suggests, the June 30 sale of scientific, medical and engineering works of art held by Christie’s South Kensington (19.5/12% buyer's premium) was something of a mixed bag. The 216-lot auction incorporated anything from 18th century microscopes and preserved amphibians to delft barbers’ bowls and scale models of locomotives.

KATE Dickens adored her father but found the situation at home after her parents’ separation to be intolerable and in 1860, desperate to get away, she entered into what was to prove a less than happy marriage to Wilkie Collins’ younger brother Charles.

THE 523-lot collection of theatrical souvenirs amassed by French actor and director Jean Darnel was 89 per cent sold by value at Piasa (20.33% buyer’s premium) on June 28, en route to a premium-inclusive €247,000 (£164,665). Thirteen lots were pre-empted by the Comédie Française and nine by the Bibliothèque Nationale.

IN recent years, clock dealers and collectors have adopted ever more exacting condition standards, preferring to wait and pay a premium for timepieces in untouched condition such as the highlight, pictured right, at Christie’s King Street (19.5/12% buyer's premium) on July 2.