Bonhams

Bonhams has made a trio of hires as contemporary art and digital growth become a focus for the auction house following the purchase by private equity group Epiris in September.

'A Book of Songs and Poems from the Old Testament and the Apocrypha', the Ashendene Press book of 1904 shown below, has in the past made as much as £2000 at auction.

Painted as a birthday gift, a portrait of one of the more popular characters in the annals of American children’s literature, Eloise, sold for $80,000 (£62,675) at Bonhams New York (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) on December 5.

A lavish Viennese gold-mounted porcelain tureen and stand – the epitome of Habsburg court luxury during the reign of the Holy Roman emperor Charles VI – topped Bonhams’ Fine European Ceramics sale in London on December 6.

Golden Age Dutch art topped the bill at Bonhams in the December 5 sale via a fresh-to-market still-life attributed to the 17th century painter Pieter Claesz (1597-1660), which sold for over four times the estimate at £130,000.

Literary high spots of a Bonhams (25/10/12% buyer’s premium) sale of November 27 included a three-volume, 1813 first of Jane Austen’s 'Pride and Prejudice'.

A monumental silver-gilt and cloisonné enamel kovsh by Feodor Rückert was among the highlights of the latest series of Russian art auctions in London

A pair of William IV candelabra from the Pembroke service led Bonhams’ Important Design: 500 Years of Fine Decorative Arts sale on November 21, selling at £190,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium).

For the first time in a decade, Sotheby’s Asian Art in London offering included a designated sale of Japanese art on November 6.

Despite the disparity in numbers, the market for Chinese and Japanese works of art are increasingly aligned.

Has Bowie made a difference? This question has been doing the rounds in Modern British circles since 2016 when Sotheby’s offered the highly publicised collection of David Bowie.