Auctioneers

A house clearance in Staffordshire yielded this highly decorative pair of late 18th or early 19th century narwhal tusk and gilt-metal lanterns for Louis Taylor’s latest sale in Stoke-on-Trent.

One of the most interesting things about auctions is how unusual objects from one side of the world come to be sold on the other, often with no apparent link.

Christie’s Education are launching a new Art, Law and Business masters course, to be accredited by Glasgow University, next month.

Christie’s have announced that from September 30 their main buyer’s premium structure will change to the following:

The London Borough of Croydon has chosen Christie’s as the auctioneers for its controversial sale of 24 Chinese works of art from its collection.

Stanley Gibbons have approached Noble Investments to explore the possibility of a takeover.

Bonhams are to move their specialist oak and vernacular furniture and sporting memorabilia sales to Oxford from Chester as part of a further review of their regional operations.

Three pieces of Victorian art from the Leverhulme collection will be offered at Sotheby’s in London later this year with a combined estimate of £9m-14m.

The competition for private sales among the leading auction rooms will step up during the coming weeks as both Sotheby’s and Christie’s hold exhibitions at their new private galleries in London.

More than 2000 objects from a Dorset toy museum will come under the hammer in November.

An autographed letter signed from Charlotte Brontë doubled its estimate to make £24,000 at Lyon & Turnbull’s September 4 rare books, maps and manuscripts sale in Edinburgh.

With the Royal Academy opening a major show of Australian art in London on September 21, Christie’s will hope the added attention on this sector will yield benefit at their specialist sale being held in the Capital the week after.

A remarkable archive of Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s personal property makes its second visit to the auction room in less than a decade this month when it is offered by Heritage Auctions in New York.

Speculation over the future of Sotheby’s has been rife since Wall Street hedge fund billionaire Daniel Loeb’s firm Third Point announced it had acquired a 5.7% stake in the firm.

Christie’s, the first international auction house to be granted a licence to operate independently in mainland China, have announced the date of their first auction.

Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions are to hold a pilot sale of Contemporary Chinese art in partnership with Yourun International (UK) Art Investment & Management Ltd, a London-based arts and cultural institution specialising in promoting emerging Chinese artists.

Is this the rarest of all Star Wars figures? The figure known by collectors as the Vinyl Cape Jawa was one of the original series of a dozen figures that accompanied the release of the film in 1978 (jawas are the hooded creatures with glowing eyes who buy and sell droids).

A number of oil paintings by Sir Kyffin Williams (1918-2006) gave a major fillip to Rogers Jones’ first sale in their new Cardiff saleroom. The results included the highest price ever seen for one of his works sold at auction.

This Scottish provincial George II communion cup topped Lyon & Turnbull’s latest silver sale in Edinburgh.

Cheshire saleroom Frank Marshall of Knutsford set a new house record when this massive 17th or 18th century Sino-Tibetan gilt bronze statue of Guanyin sold for £126,000.