Lyon & Turnbull

Gillian Raffles (1930-2021) was one of a very small number of pioneering female gallerists in Britain’s post-war art scene.

Builder’s ship models are exactly the kind of old-school exhibits that museums are hiding away in dusty storage or selling off. Fortunately for auction houses, they are instead being welcomed into collections by eager buyers.

Among the Italian Old Masters bringing interest at auctions across the country over the summer was an intriguing painting of the Holy Family that emerged at Lyon & Turnbull (26% buyer’s premium) in Edinburgh.

Lyon & Turnbull’s (26% buyer’s premium) sale marking the centenary of the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes - the event that later gave Art Deco its name - included a Lalique glass vase that was shown at the event. Quatre Figurines Femmes Formant Soutien, standing 6½in (17cm) high and modelled as a quartet of crouching female nudes supporting an ovoid bowl, was made using the cire perdue (or lost wax) technique.

A rare Iznik pottery tile made for the Çini li Hamam bathhouse during the reign of Suleyman the Magnificent sold for £195,000 at Lyon & Turnbull.

In 1962, Lord John Hope, the Minister of Works in the Macmillan government commissioned David Mellor (1930-2009) to ‘supply silver you have designed to every British embassy in the world’.

Cartier’s aquamarine jewellery appears to have been predominantly produced from the London workshop starting in 1932.

An early work by LS Lowry (1887-1976) first sold to the literary editor of The Manchester Guardian for £10 in 1926 and kept by his family is now estimated at £700,000-£1m in a May 1-2 auction.

The Art Deco design movement found a unique expression in Cotswolds School furniture - one that sought to blend clean lines with traditional English materials and craftsmanship.

The London-based design company Isokon, which produced furniture by Wells Coates and Marcel Breuer, and Gerald Summers’ firm Makers of Simple Furniture both explored the radical possibilities of lamination.

Letter to Queen Elizabeth I written after Robert Dudley’s marriage lacks the earlier flirtatious tone

The second designated Islamic & Indian Art auction held by Lyon & Turnbull (26/25% buyer’s premium) in London included a group of market-fresh Indo-Portuguese mother-of-pearl vessels.

Focusing on the single-owner space helped both Dreweatts and Lyon & Turnbull to achieve strong numbers in 2024.

Collection of banker and financier with a bohemian streak included an eclectic mix of pictures

Once just the preserve of one or two London firms, now such consignments are there to be won for many others