Auctioneers

A great many works written and/or illustrated by Denys Watkins-Pitchford, or ‘BB’ as he was more briefly known, were offered in a December 8 sale.

Published in 1906 in a limited run of just 100 copies on paper and 20 on vellum was an edition of Sir Thomas More’s Utopia employing a red and black Subiaco typeface with red initials designed by Eric Gill.

Among the more unusual recent lots at Woolley & Wallis (25% buyer’s premium) was an early Victorian table carved from parrot coal.

As part of its So Unique series of single-lot auctions, Millon will be selling this painting by Henri Matisse (1869-1954) in Paris.

A new auction record for Edward Barnsley was among the many highlights of the Minoprio collection of Cotswold School furniture sold by Lyon & Turnbull (25% buyer’s premium).

Laidlaw Auctioneers and Valuers has invested in a new premises in Carlisle with a café and a museum on site and the auction house is confident that room bidding is not a thing of the past.

Heritage has promoted Aviva Lehmann to senior vice president in New York.

Seventy years ago in 1952 Swann Galleries in New York held the first auction dedicated to photographs in the US.

Bidders backing their judgment sent two lots to 20-times estimates at Mallams’ (25% buyer’s premium) jewellery and silver sale

This fine example of Vienna Secession furniture was bought last year in a junk shop on the south coast for just £5.

Intriguing lot offered paintings as central element and elaborate border section combined

A round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days, including a spate of art thefts.

Undoubtedly one of the more unusual lots to have featured in these reports over the years, the 3½in (9cm) wide piece of gold foil pictured here bears an Orphic poem by one Agestratos, who dedicates his brief verses to Apollo in what is thought to be Doric Greek.

A newly discovered Henry III ‘gold penny’, one of the most fabled coins in all of British numismatics, has sold for £540,000 (plus 20% buyer’s premium).

The potent mix of China, horseracing and the 1851 Great Exhibition yielded a strong price for this splendid ‘export’ silver trophy at auction.

The January series of Old Master auctions at Sotheby’s New York was led by a Sandro Botticelli (c.1445-1510) painting for the second year running.