Tennants

Flemish Old Masters and Modern works combined to boost takings at two spring sales held north and south in England.

After abandoning his early career as a contributor to Punch and the Illustrated London News, Myles Birket Foster (1825-99) went on to establish his reputation as a painter of technically skilled and highly polished watercolours, depicting landscapes and rustic subjects from Scotland to the Mediterranean.

It was during the First World War that the convenience of the wristwatch began to replace the pocketwatch but it really came into its own with the production of bespoke ‘tool’ watches for submariners and airmen later in the century.

Heuer watches, steeped in racing history, are among the ‘secondary’ or ‘niche’ Swiss brands that have entered the mainstream collecting arena in the past decade.

The recent Modern Living sale at Tennants (20% buyer’s premium) was dominated by ‘Mouseman’ furniture, something of a speciality at the Leyburn rooms.

Weekly clearance sales are increasingly being replaced by newly branded formats as auction houses are responding to fresh consumer trends.

It was during a period of intense industrialisation that the 19th century pastoral tradition in British print making flourished.

The concertina-cut novelty pictured here is one in which a painted roundel of a cottage pulls up to reveal a large mouse.

The Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle was among the buyers when Tennants sold 13 quilts that belonged to Durham hill farmer Hannah Hauxwell (1926-2018) on February 9.

Among the 70-plus exhibitors attending the Textile Society’s annual Antique and Vintage Textiles Fair at the Armitage Centre in Manchester on Sunday, April 14, is fan specialist Mary Cooper.

In 2018 Tennants of Leyburn recorded a hammer turnover of £13.3m – an increase of roughly £1m from the previous year.

On January 10, Tennants (20% buyer’s premium) sold a single-owner collection of polar and other travel books – reported in ATG No 2376 – but the Christmas/New Year period was a busy one overall for the North Yorkshire auction house.

The best meat platters have weathered the dip in fortunes of Staffordshire pearlware. The Durham Ox series remains a favourite pattern and there was no shortage of northern private bidders when two c.1820 examples were offered at Tennants’ (20% buyer’s premium) Leyburn sale on January 12.

Exotic blades from all parts of the world are making headlines in the salerooms. Recent auctions have produced some interesting results from unlooked-for places, but none was less expected than the £42,000 paid for a 19th century Siamese niello and silver-gilt mounted sword in the Japanese taste at Thomas Del Mar (24% buyer’s premium) in London on December 5.

Many weapons have to remain silent witnesses to the conflicts in which they took part, so there is always extra interest in arms which can be linked directly to a particular soldier or battle.

Estimated at just £150-200, a sardonyx cameo ring sold to a dealer for £39,000 (plus 20% buyer’s premium) at auction.