Dreweatts

It’s been a challenging couple of decades for classic English furniture but early winter has witnessed a few stars across the provinces, be it classic English or more exotic overseas material, to offer some gleams of encouragement.

Our weekly selection from salerooms.

A Qianlong teapot which made £800,000 in Dorchester provided the stellar result among some exceptional Asian art lots offered for sale in the UK regions and Ireland last week.

It was not catalogued as such, but this silver ring modelled as a standing lion with a gold-coloured mane is designed by Moshe Oved (1885-1958), the owner of celebrated Bloomsbury antique shop Cameo Corner where jewellery expert John Benjamin first learnt his trade.

A sale of Modern First Editions at Bloomsbury Auctions on November 14 includes this ‘near mint’ 1950 copy of Graham Greene’s 'The Third Man and The Fallen Idol'.

Latest sales give a snapshot of what collectors are looking for amid different styles and eras

Classic summer scene by artist known for neighbourhood views makes rare appearance

Underpinned by an 81-lot consignment from the estate of the late Fred Sansome, a famous figure in the world of model railways, the Transport Sale at Dreweatts (25% buyer’s premium) was led by scratch-built locomotives by equally revered names.

This pair of green stained ivory cufflinks offered by Dreweatts (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) of Donnington Priory was made by Child & Child after a design by the eminent Pre-Raphaelite painter and jewellery designer Edward Burne-Jones.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

These two mahogany library mantel timepieces – for sale at Dreweatts of Donnington Priory in the autumn – were supplied to HM Government by Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy in the early days of Victoria’s reign.

The May 22 sale at Dreweatts of Donnington Priory titled Japanese, Islamic and Indian Works of Art included a collection of Iznik and Damascus tiles from the estate of the artist Sir Howard Hodgkin (1932-2017).

Two collections assembled since the late 1960s enthuse a fresh generation of buyers.

Inherited Dutch Old Masters offered alongside recently acquired modern works by artists such as Walter Sickert, Edward Seago and Gerald Kelly proved a winning formula at Dreweatts’ (25% buyer’s premium) country house dispersal held on May 1 at Donnington Priory.

With ‘on the premises’ country house contents sales now so rare, the more usual practice is for the better pieces to be removed to saleroom bases.