Auctioneers

THE man who oversaw the French Revolution's 'reign of terror' but who finally met his end at the guillotine himself, Maximilien de Robespierre, was back on the block again at the end of last month as Sotheby's auctioned an extraordinary cache of documents in Paris.

IT is symptomatic of the changes in the Poole pottery market that the joint top selling lot in a large specialist sale last month was a 1960s rimmed dish.

THE latest Modern British art sale at Christie's in London set a series of new benchmarks for the sector.

GLASGOW acquired a new auction house last month when Mulberry Bank Auctions officially opened with a drinks reception on the evening of May 20.

DONNINGTON Priory saleroom Dreweatts sold the collection of Bob Oliphant as part of a wider-ranging auction of traditional art and antiques on May 24-25.

SALISBURY auctioneers Woolley & Wallis saw two more lots make over £1m last week.

BONHAMS are to work with Cranfield University in Bedfordshire with the aim of making new technological advancements for authenticating porcelain more accessible for use in the art market.

CHINESE works of art dominated this month's Asian sales series in London but among the most successful auctions last week was Bonhams' dispersal of the second part of the Edward Wrangham (1928-2009) collection.

SOTHEBY’S made a profit in the first three months of 2011 – that profit may have been only $2.4m, but it compares with a loss of $2.2m for the same period last year.

THE latest sales of Contemporary art in New York produced some solid results, but buyers were selective and not all the projected highlights fulfilled vendors’ expectations.

THE contstant jockeying for position in the Australian art and antiques auctions market continues with the appointment of Mark Fraser as chairman of Bonhams Australia with immediate effect.

IN a series of high-profile auctions in New York that saw an underperforming run of Impressionist and Modern art sales, the eye-catching price of the week by some distance came for a 19th century historical genre painting.

SOTHEBY'S will sell the earliest rules of club football on July 14. They are part of a lot which includes the historic archive of the world’s oldest football club, Sheffield FC.

SOTHEBY’S latest Asian series represented an all-time high for the firm in Hong Kong.

IN a private sale negotiated by Christie’s, the Victoria and Albert Museum has acquired this remarkable 16th century tankard made for the Ottoman court.

THEY may look plain and simple, but this pair of silver wall-hanging candle scones had private and trade bidders clamouring to buy when they came up for sale last week at Colchester auction rooms Reeman Dansie.

THE London Islamic sales week got of to a ‘magic carpet’ start when Morton and Eden held an 81-lot sale devoted to the rarest Islamic coins.

THE mammoth, 875-lot, three-day sale from the collections of the Château de Gourdon staged by Christie's in Paris closed last week closed having raised a hammer total of €35.1m (£31.9m).

ONE of the rarer acts of peace-time bravery saw the crew of the airship R33 awarded the Air Force Medal.They included George Ernest Long, whose medals and associated ephemera came up for auction at Lockdales of Ipswich on March 27.

SOUTH London saleroom Rosebery’s of West Norwood had to be evacuated on Wednesday, March 23 after a client left a Second World War bomb brought in for valuation at the front desk.