Auctioneers

A humble table tennis bat bought at a car boot sale in Surrey for £3.50 served up a surprise at Hansons’ (25% buyer’s premium) London monthly auction on September 25.

William De Morgan considered pieces from the Moonlight and Sunset Suite made in the early 1890s to be his very best work.

Among Gilbert Ledward’s (1880-1960) most admired works is the sensuous nude, 'Awakening' or 'The Awakening', that today stands in Ropers Garden on the Chelsea Embankment.

Relating to perhaps the most famous of all compositions for the lute, a version of John Dowland’s 'Lachrimae pavane' proved a major attraction in a music sale held by Sotheby’s (26/20/13.9% buyer’s premium).

Derbyshire auction house Hansons (25% buyer’s premium) sold memorabilia this summer worn by two Manchester United favourites of different eras: George Best and David Beckham.

The personal desk set of the artist/decorator Paul Dupré Lafon (1900-71) will feature in the sale of Decorative Arts to be held by Tajan on November 23.

An England blue velvet and silver braid cap awarded to Sir Alfred Ramsey sold for a mid-estimate £3400 at Lacy Scott & Knight (22.5% buyer’s premium) in Bury St Edmunds.

While COP26 has been in full swing in Glasgow, Forum Auctions has been fronting a charity sale highlighting environmental issues including climate change.

Maurice Setters (1936-2020) is perhaps best known to many football fans as the assistant to Jack Charlton as Republic of Ireland enjoyed success in the 1980s-90s.

A great many of the lots that brought prices in the £1000-10,000 range in a recent Cheltenham sale were multiples of varying size – some running to as many as a hundred volumes – but noted here are a couple with that same Spetchley Park provenance that can be more precisely defined.

Fashioned into a recumbent billy goat or deer, this diminutive Qing dynasty rhinoceros horn carving goes under the hammer in the inaugural live auction of Asian art from St James’s dealer Alastair Gibson of Gibson Antiques.

A painting of a pugilist will now be researched by the dealer who bought it at auction thanks to his collecting fascination with the early days of the sport

A pair of early 19th century Staffordshire pearlware figures modelled after bare-knuckle boxers Tom Cribb and Tom Molineaux who fought for a ‘world title’ of sorts is estimated at £3000-5000 in Tennants’ Autumn Fine Sale on November 13 in Leyburn.

Not all football memorabilia has to be Manchester United or early FA Cup, say, to catch the eye of buyers.

Other than the growing body of his surviving work, little is known about Robert (or Robart) Mindum.

Three works by the Belgian Surrealist feature in the Paris Art Week series of auctions

Two auction houses, Christie’s and Tajan, are collaborating for a November 22 sale in Paris of Old Master paintings and drawings from the collections of the Marcille family.

One of the highlights of the sale of Impressionist and Modern Art at Aguttes on November 16 in Neuilly is this work from 1901 by Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947), 'La Charmille'.

The highlight of an impressive range of football memorabilia offered by specialist Graham Budd (20.5% buyer’s premium) was the earliest Manchester United medal sold at auction.