Dreweatts

Update (July 2019): auctions resumed at Bloomsbury in 2018 following Gurr Johns' purchase of Dreweatts and Bloomsbury in 2017. In February 2019 it expanded the number of sales at its London office at 16-17 Pall Mall. The original story is below.

Fine examples of John Sell Cotman’s (1782-1842) draftsmanship appeared at separate auctions in the south of England.

Mark Law has left Dreweatts in Donnington Priory, with the future of the firm now unclear.

Mark Law’s deal to buy auction firm Dreweatts and the Mallett brand from stamp dealer group Stanley Gibbons has collapsed.

The completion of Mark Law’s deal to buy auction house Dreweatts from stamp dealer group Stanley Gibbons has been delayed due to a change in financial backing for the £2.4m purchase.

The new owner of Dreweatts in Newbury is to bring back a monthly general sale.

ATG's weekly selection of items on sale at auctions and dealerships.

“I’m enjoying quite a honeymoon period,” said Mark Law, new joint owner of Dreweatts (24% buyer’s premium). He took on the day-to-day running of the Newbury auction house on May 9 ahead of taking over formally with investor partner Gavin Alexander later this summer.

Dreweatts has set a new auction record for the 20th century British sculptor John Skeaping (1901-80). At Donnington Priory on May 24, this 2ft (60cm) pink marble carving, Female nude, right, signed and dated 1928, sold to Cork Street dealership Browse & Darby for £90,000 (£111,600 including premium).

The new boss of Dreweatts says he sees “huge potential” for the saleroom as it reverts to owner-management focused on its headquarters in Newbury.

Back in 2013 and with great fanfare, stamp dealership Stanley Gibbons revealed to the stock market that it had bought a group of art, antiques and collectables specialists.

Confirmation of market tastes in horology could be gleaned from major spring sales in the provinces...

Published in 1631 in Rinteln, a small town in Lower Saxony, Friederich Spee’s Cautio Criminalis, seu de Processibus Contra Sagas is a first edition in much later boards of a book that has been described as the first serious attack on witchcraft trials and their use of torture.

Three high-quality sales from the north to the south gave a cheerful air to spring. The catalogue at Tennants in North Yorkshire pretty much covered the range but in Sussex and Buckinghamshire the emphasis was on furniture.

Dominated as they were by furniture, the March sales at Lewes and Donnington Priory included other highlights.