Auctioneers

Two leading regional auction houses – Lyon & Turnbull and Dreweatts – are trying new format sales this autumn in the hope of increasing demand for traditional European art and antiques. Both are creating room sets for viewing works.

Pittsburgh entrepreneur Joseph Calihan and his wife Brenda bought their first piece of Irish art – an oil by Paul Henry – in the early 1990s.

A portrait of a young Stuart woman, below, attributed to the Hungarian painter Johannes Priwitzer (fl.1626-35), topped the picture section in a two-day sale at Cheffins (22.5% buyer’s premium) of Cambridge.

An American library on the history of computing formed by the late Erwin Tomash provided the new season’s first major sale.

Heritage Auctions in Texas sold this Broadwood amboyna and giltwood grand piano for $22,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) at a recent auction. Evidently it had been on quite a journey.

Jean Théodore Descourtilz’s Oiseaux brillans du Brésil “…is so rare that I had begun to doubt its existence”.

In the UK Huntley and Palmers and McVitie’s might be the brand names to trip off the tongue at the mention of the word biscuit. In France it is LU that first comes to mind.

“A truly beautiful medal and a royal provenance make this something quite out of the ordinary. And, without hesitation, we can say that it is unique.” Stephen Fenton, specialist at Baldwin’s of St James’s, singled out a George IV accession medal as a highlight of the Peter Earthy collection.

They won’t show it on the rostrum and probably not with clients but auction house professionals do have a likeness for particular artists.

Gerard Sekoto (1913-93) is cementing his place as one of the most bankable names in the field of South African art.