Dreweatts

Two drawings of Old Testament subjects by the American-born portrait and history painter Benjamin West (1738-1820) proved the highlight of the latest sale of Old Masters & 19th Century Works on Paper at Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions’ saleroom in Mayfair.

It’s only recently in the decade-long boom in Chinese works of art that Far Eastern buyers have come to appreciate once again the merits of Export silver. Once a neglected area, academic interest has been piqued in the subject as the marketplace moves in leaps and bounds.

A massive Coalport Feldspar porcelain jug painted with a study of Earl Spencer’s Durham Ox in a parkland setting has been bought by the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

Born near Loughborough into a family of tenant farmers, Robert Bakewell (1725-95) is recognised as an important figure in the Agricultural Revolution – a pioneer of the grassland irrigation he saw while travelling in Europe and an innovator in the selective breeding of livestock.

Auctioneer Richard Madley believes he may have set a record for the longest time ever taken to sell a single lot.

This Charles II eight-day longcase clock by Joseph Knibb – a ‘snapshot’ of early longcase clock development – doubled its estimate to sell for £240,000 at Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions sale in Donnington Priory.

The commercial fortunes of Victorian silver ‘castle top’ card cases, engraved or embossed with views of British landmarks, depend primarily on the scarcity of the scene depicted.

Optimism permeated the UK’s regional auction market across much of the last year.

Bloomsbury Auctions enjoyed stellar success with their single-owner sale of caricatures, costume and sporting prints, including this image of the king’s mistress.

Dreweatts achieved their highest price to date in the Asian art market when an 18th century Sino-Tibetan thangka depicting the Milarepa cult sold for £450,000 at the firm’s first sale marking their participation in the Asian Art in London initiative.

Dreweatts & Bloomsbury auctions have joined forces with Philobiblon, a leading Italian antiquarian books and manuscripts specialist, to offer monthly valuation events, auctions and fine art exhibitions in Rome.

Dreweatts & Bloomsbury launch a series of Sunday viewings for selected auctions this Sunday (November 10) at Donnington Priory, Newbury.

Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions are to hold a pilot sale of Contemporary Chinese art in partnership with Yourun International (UK) Art Investment & Management Ltd, a London-based arts and cultural institution specialising in promoting emerging Chinese artists.

The sale of Fine Clocks, Barometers and Scientific Instruments conducted by Dreweatts at Donnington Priory on September 4 will include this well-documented William and Mary brass lantern clock by Thomas Veale of Chew Magna.

At Dreweatts’ first stand-alone sale of jewellery in London this version of Salvador Dalí’s ‘The Eye Of Time’ (El Ojo Del Tempo) brooch sold for £75,000.

This c.1614 polychrome alabaster sculpture lost from a London church during the Blitz has been returned to its original location.

A rare linocut by Cyril Power (1874-1951) leads the sale of Modern & Contemporary prints at Bloomsbury Auctions in London on June 27.

Dreweatts will be conducting the first auction of a complete RHS Chelsea garden during this year’s flower show.

It was during negotiations to secure the future of the Kelmscott Press after the death of William Morris in 1896 that Laurence William Hodson (1863-1933) acquired four watercolour and pencil designs by Philip Webb (1831-1915).

Works of art, tapestries, jewellery and books from the collection of Laurence William Hodson (1864-1933), an art collector and patron to William Morris and other leading artists of the Arts & Crafts Movement, are to be offered across three sales at Dreweatts and Bloomsbury Auctions.