Auctioneers

A round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days, including news of Colonial Williamsburg buying a Washington ‘Indian peace medal’.

Among the properties included in the June Thomas Del Mar sale was the McEwen collection of bows and associated items which proved unexpectedly popular raising £30,000, around four times its top estimate.

A recent sale at Bentley’s (19% buyer’s premium) in Cranbrook, Kent included a rare US Presidential lifesaving medallion.

The price gulf that once existed between good 18th century French furniture and very good late 19th century revivalism is no longer visible at auction. A quality reproduction can often outsell its period exemplar.

With their cross-over collecting appeal to the automobile market, Lalique 'bouchons de radiator' – car mascots or hood ornaments – assume their own price levels.

A quintessential example of avant-garde Art Deco jewellery by a French designer who was renowned for such modernist pieces was the toast of Christie’s (25/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) online Jewellery sale in Paris which closed on July 7.

What is known as Indo-Chinese art frequently comes up for auction in France, in part because this area of south-east Asia was formerly a French colony.

Two lots from the March 30 live online auction held by Antony Cribb (22% buyer’s premium) of Newbury are shown here.

An early painting by Roger ‘Syd’ Barrett (1946-2006) of Pink Floyd led a 200-lot picture section at a recent Cheffins (22.5% buyer’s premium) sale.

Very soon after the gun was invented men were trying to find ways of speeding up the process of reloading powder and shot to obtain a superior rate of fire.

The prize lot sold at a recent Hermann Historica (25% buyer’s premium) sale in Munich was this 19th century Ottoman kilij of characteristic form with a curved blade swelling towards the tip.

Three pistol lots came to the fore at a recent sale at Bonhams (27.5/25/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) in London.

Once the humble playthings of boys the world over, airguns now attract a keen collector following.

Norfolk event is eagerly awaited by enthusiastic customers starved of fairs open to public

The German Maxim machine gun was used to devastating effect on Allied troops during the First World War.

A premium-inclusive total of £1.5m was achieved at Holts’ (25/20% buyer’s premium) summer auction in Norfolk, the third consecutive sale held with no one bidding in the room because of Covid restrictions.

The vast majority of cushion-moulded mirrors from the late 17th century have lost their original cresting, which was both flamboyant and fragile.