Duke's

A selection of three works from UK regional salerooms sold for £1000 or under.

While good-quality but familiar Georgian silver such as entrée dishes, tureens and sauceboats estimated in the £6000-12,000 range met stiff resistance at Dorchester auction house Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) on June 28, two top-quality pieces made their money.

Among several runaway lots at Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) Asian Art sale in Dorchester was a 19th century Indian watercolour depicting the Mughal Emperor Akbar II on an elephant.

Well-provenanced Chinese monochromes dominated bidding at recent Asian art sales across the UK regions.

“We were particularly encouraged by the performance of the furniture with many pieces selling to trade and private buyers for ‘old school’ prices.”

Duke’s of Dorchester has hired a trio of specialists to grow its auction calendar and attract consignments from outside its immediate catchment area.

A gold memorial ring made for one of Nelson’s ‘Band of Brothers’ – and containing a lock of the Admiral’s hair – sold for £20,000 (plus premium) at Duke’s of Dorchester on December 7.

Lee Young, Asian art specialist and international director at Lyon & Turnbull, is joining Duke’s of Dorchester in December. He will assume the role of managing director.

Modern sculpture, including a small rediscovered marine ivory piece by Eric Gill (1882-1940), took centre stage at Duke’s (22% buyer’s premium) in Dorset.

West Hall, located on the outskirts of Long Burton a few miles south of Sherborne, is an imposing stone-built manor house. The ancient iron-studded front door still bears the axe marks made by Oliver Cromwell’s Roundheads in the English Civil War as they tried to beat down the door. They suspected Charles I may have been hiding inside.

“It was one of those eureka moments,” said Rosemary Scott, Chinese ceramics specialist at Christie’s. “My colleague Jeremy Morgan was on a perfectly normal valuation visit when he walked into the drawing room and there, on the mantelpiece, he saw these vases. He couldn’t believe his eyes.”

Duke’s of Dorchester posted the top regional Asian art price of the season on May 18 when Wu Guanzhong’s (1919-2010) scroll painting White Birches on Mount Chang Bai (Zhangbai) sold at £500,000 (plus buyer’s premium).