Auctioneers

The auction process is a key part of the secondary art and antiques market.

Firms of auctioneers usually specialise in a number of fields such as jewellery, ceramics, paintings, Asian art or coins but many also hold general sales where the goods available are not defined by a particular genre and are usually lower in value.

Auctioneers often provide other services such as probate and insurance valuations.

Gustav Klimt’s portrait of Elisabeth Lederer

Klimt portrait makes second-highest all-time auction price

19 November 2025

The inaugural auction at Sotheby’s new headquarters at the Breuer Building in New York produced a series of fireworks, not least a record for any lot ever sold by the 281-year-old firm.

Benji Tyler and Marc Allum

Antiques specialists and interior designers team up for Chippenham church fundraising sale and auction

18 November 2025

A group of antiques dealers and interior designers, alongside fashion designer Lulu Guinness, have got together to launch St Andrew’s Church Decorators’ Attic Sale while Dore & Rees will also host an auction in support of the church.

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Anne Clark discoveries underline market strength

17 November 2025

The sale of Chinese and other Asian Works of Art at Semley Auctioneers in Shaftesbury, Dorset, included the largest known group of works by the artist Mrs H Clark.

George II mahogany side table

Outstanding Irish furniture from Mississippi Rococo collection comes back to the market

17 November 2025

Important Irish mahogany furniture returned to market on November 11 when Brunk Auctions in North Carolina sold the so-called Mississippi Rococo collection of Jerold D Krouse.

Gordon Russell bowl

Arts & Crafts collector Ray Leigh's treasured items come to auction in Gloucestershire

17 November 2025

On November 25, Gloucestershire auction house Chorley’s is selling the personal collection of Ray Leigh (1928-2025), one of the more significant figures in post-war British design.

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Eye-catching lover's eye ring was not necessarily for love

17 November 2025

Lovers’ eyes became a la mode from c.1790 and remained fashionable in the courts and affluent families of England, Russia, France and North America until the early 1830s.

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Three Sheila Fell works on offer, three different private buyers

17 November 2025

A trio of works by Cumbrian artist Sheila Fell (1931-79) were among the highlights of Newcastle saleroom Anderson & Garland’s (25% buyer’s premium) latest Modern Art & Design Auction.

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Gold rush memento from Australia offered in Birmingham

17 November 2025

The gold rush that followed the discovery of significant deposits in New South Wales and Victoria in 1851, was a catalyst for the first colonial jewellery expressing an Australian identify.

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Shore thing: Designer Norman Grant inspired by the Scottish coast

17 November 2025

Norman Grant, a student of David Hodge at Gray’s School of Art, began to design and make jewellery from his garden shed in the late 1960s.

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Churchill fan wins a saleroom V for victory contest

17 November 2025

This small silver ‘V for Victory’ pendant made by the London firm of John Pinches Medallists for Cartier London is engraved Winston Churchill 1951-1955.

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Brooch on offer was given to bridesmaids at a royal wedding

17 November 2025

One of the eight York Rose brooches given by Prince Albert (later George VI) to the bridesmaids who attended his marriage to Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (later Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother) in 1923, will be offered at Noonans in Mayfair on November 25.

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Syrie Maugham’s chic sophistication shines through

17 November 2025

Newbury auction house Dreweatts (27% buyer’s premium) held a sale last month titled Syrie Maugham: A Family Collection, offering items from the interior designer and her descendants.

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Isaac Newton's ‘greatest intellectual stride’ strolls into a Swiss saleroom

17 November 2025

The books sale at Koller (25% buyer’s premium) in Zurich on September 17 was topped at SwFr250,000 (£237,250) by a first edition of the book Einstein described as “perhaps the greatest intellectual stride that it has ever been granted to any man to make”.

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From Buckingham Palace vaults to saleroom highs

17 November 2025

Proving once again that fine tiaras associated with royalty and or aristocracy carry a financial premium, Lyon & Turnbull (26% buyer’s premium) sold the Airlie tiara on October 22.

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Antiques Roadshow vase stars in saleroom at £125,000

17 November 2025

The renewed fashion for ancient bronzes during the Qing period reflected a confluence of scholarly interest, artistic expression and political strategy.

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Javanese please: Items from the Indonesian island’s true golden age

17 November 2025

Jewellery shows great artistic and technical sophistication that catches the eyes of collectors

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Fascinating relics from captain killed at Trafalgar come to auction

17 November 2025

A musket ball-riddled handkerchief of a Royal Navy captain cut down at the Battle of Trafalgar stood out at a London sale, but it was a letter to his eight-year-old daughter also retrieved from his pocket that added a particularly poignant touch.

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Lady Joceline’s tiara on offer in Dublin

17 November 2025

This late Victorian diamond tiara set with old mine, old European and old cut diamonds comes for sale at Adam’s in Dublin on December 2 by descent from Dermot Chichester, 7th Marquess of Donegall (1916-2007).

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Hoot if you are a Lalique car mascot worth £70,000

17 November 2025

Rare stalking owl catches the eye in Lewes as local vendor sells Lalique car mascots and advertising signs

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Ring deemed of ‘Tudor or Stuart’ origin rather than 18th century

17 November 2025

The unexpected highpoint of the sale at Potteries Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) in Staffordshire on November 7 – a sale otherwise dominated by 20th century collectable ceramics – was this high-carat gold signet or seal ring.

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