Auctioneers

Two businessmen from Auckland have rescued New Zealand auction house Webb’s from administration after the collapse of parent company Mossgreen.

An unexpected highlight of a recent sale at Sworders in Stansted Mountfitchet was this set of four early real tennis rackets. They came from a client in the North of England and had been owned by the family for many years.

It was in keeping with a Salisbury sale dominated by the remarkable £460,000 bid for a teapot made at Cain Hoy, South Carolina by John Bartlam c.1765 (see ATG 2331), that the same Woolley & Wallis (25% buyer’s premium) ceramics sale included a group of three rare enamel boxes made for the American market.

The name of the late Bill Coysh is instantly recognisable to enthusiasts of transfer printed pottery.

Led by the portrait of an Italian mastiff by il Guercino (1591-1666), dogs took a starring role in the Cheffins' March 8 sale. The delightful oil of a stocky ‘Cane Corso’, perhaps the artist’s own dog, overshot a £80,000-120,000 estimate and was knocked down at £570,000 – the highest auction price in the English regions so far this year.

The ceramics and glass offering at a recent Chiswick Auctions' (25% buyer’s premium) sale included a particularly fine Raeren salt-glazed jug c.1600.

A first English edition of Charlotte Bernhardi’s translation of her father, Admiral Krusenstern’s Memoir… of his 1803-06 circumnavigation of the globe was one of the rarer items offered at Toovey’s (24.5% buyer’s premium) on February 20.

The sale-topper at Wilkinson’s Auctioneers (20% buyer’s premium) of Doncaster in South Yorkshire was a16th century English portrait of an aristocratic lady.

Multi-estimate results greeted the Joyce Paretti collection of perfume bottles sold by John Nicholson’s (24% buyer’s premium) of Fernhurst in two instalments before and after the new year.

Much of the Clarice Cliff pottery that finds its way into UK salerooms is relatively inexpensive. However, a clutch of pieces by the Staffordshire born and bred designer due to go under the hammer over the next few weeks will attract those in the hunt for scarcer works.

William George, an online-only auctioneer which ceased trading antique ivory in 2017, is setting up a group called Auctioneers Against Ivory for auctioneers considering their own antique ivory strategies.

Despite their small size and often unsophisticated appearance, Lowestoft models of animals are highly collectable.

As a general rule late Victorian ceramics are at a low ebb, and teasets in particular. Bucking that trend was the extraordinary bid for this Wileman Shelley six-place tea set offered by Lockdales (19.5% buyer’s premium) Martlesham, near Ipswich.

A pair of trademark gouaches by Mary Fedden (1915-2012) drew strong bidding at auctions in Derbyshire and Essex.