Dreweatts

Eric Knowles has joined the team at Dreweatts and Bloomsbury Auctions as a consultant.

An important private collection of Beatrix Potter books, manuscripts, artwork, photographs, figurines and collectables is being offered for sale at Bloomsbury Auctions on February 27.

Noble Investments, owners of coin specialists Baldwin’s, have acquired The Fine Art Auction Group, owners of provincial auctioneers Dreweatts and rare books, manuscripts and contemporary works on paper specialists Bloomsbury Auctions.

Modern firsts from the library of Clive Hirschhorn produced plenty of strong and many record prices at Bloomsbury Auctions but a number of significant works did not sell. As such, this was an important sale for illustrating the vagaries of the market.

This pair of Chinese export enamelled incense holders in the form of elephants are on offer at Dreweatts’ November 21 sale in Donnington Priory, Newbury.

Dreweatts have announced a new joint venture with online wine trading platform bidforwine.com which provides live online and timed bidding services for connoisseurs, traders and investors, backed by storage facilities at the EHD bonded warehouse in Weybridge.

This first edition, first issue of ‘The Great Gatsby’ from 1922 is one of the star lots in a sale described by Bloomsbury Auctions as “one of the most important collections of modern first editions to come onto the market in the last ten years”.

Works of art by architect-designer William Burges (1827-1881) are extremely rare – but serendipity has seen half a dozen pieces emerge recently in the regions.

The franchise agreement under which Bloomsbury Auctions Italia has operated in Rome since September 2011 has ceased.

A saddlecloth reputedly used by Queen Elizabeth I during her state visit to Bristol in 1574 is to be offered at auction.

The latest Interiors sale at Dreweatts of Donnington Priory included this 2ft 6in (77cm) wide coromandel and ivory marquetry centre or Communion table.

A portrait of Princess Elizabeth by Dame Laura Knight (1877-1970) completed just a few years before she became Queen is to go under the hammer at Bloomsbury Auctions in London on September 12.

Decorated by William Burges (1827-1881), this silver mounted Chinese carved celadon jade bowl it to be offered at Dreweatts in Donnington Priory, Newbury on September 12.

Leading Dreweatts’ interiors sale in Donnington Priory, Newbury, on September 5 is this Indian or possibly Indo-Portuguese ebony, coromandel and ivory inset centre table.

Bloomsbury Auctions will offer 42 original pencil sketches by American novelist Norman Mailer at their July 19 sale in London.

ROUND UP: The highlight of the latest silver sale held by Dreweatts of Donnington Priory was this George I Britannia standard chocolate cup.

Among the star attractions at Bloomsbury Auction’s ‘Urban Contemporary’ sale, a 120-lot auction held on July 3 in Mayfair, London is ‘Moona Lisa’, a unique rendition in gold by Bristol-based artist Nick Walker.

This Chinese cloisonné enamel crane from the Qing Dynasty (18th-19th century) will be offered in Dreweatts’ Donnington Priory sale on June 27.

Duncan Campbell was a remarkable and unconventional dealer. His gallery in Thackeray Street, Kensington, was packed with pretty much anything that caught his eye, whether it was paintings, prints, pottery, furniture, or tribal art.

It was full steam ahead at Dreweatts’ auction of model locomotives from the Salem Collection as a world record price was run up.