Auctioneers

THE 16-lot section devoted to Martin Brothers art pottery at Bonhams' latest Ceramic Design sale provided a number of the notable results.

THE highlight of the two-day sale conducted by Rosebery's of West Norwood, London on March 15-16 was this unsigned lantern clock, left, consigned 'in the rough' by a private vendor.

THE large sums of money currently paid for the very top works by leading South African artists was seen once again at Bonhams’ latest sale in this category.

Amid all the speculation surrounding payment for the Qianlong Imperial vase sold at Bainbridge’s of Ruislip for £43m hammer, Peter Bainbridge, who has been tight-lipped about the state of affairs in recent weeks, has now told his local newspaper that the sale is going through.

A SET of four George II silver salts by the celebrated Huguenot silversmith Paul de Lamerie (1688-1751) sold for a double-estimate £19,000 at Hansons' latest sale at the Mackworth Hotel in Derby.

CHRISTIE’S chief operating officer, Lisa King, has resigned from the firm after only a year in her new role.

CHURCHILL impersonator Derek Herbert was in Towcester on March 16 to aid Northamptonshire auctioneer Jonathan Humbert in the sale of a pair of acetate tortoiseshell-effect reading glasses that belonged to Sir Winston.

HAMPSHIRE auctioneers Jacobs & Hunt of Petersfield achieved a new house record when they sold this 17th century Italian specimen marble plaque for £37,000 last month.

ON April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin blasted out of the earth’s atmosphere in the Vostok 3KA-3 Space Capsule, becoming the first man to travel into space.

A PICTURE discovered in a Suffolk village has sold for Aus$132,000 (£85,715) in Bonhams' saleroom in Sydney, Australia.

DREWEATTS auctioneers have announced that they will make their first sortie into the racing world by sponsoring a race at Newbury Racecourse on Friday, April 15.

SOUTH Africa’s withdrawal from the Commonwealth in 1961 brought with it hefty import taxes on finished luxury goods: a difficult moment for Meccano, for whom the colonies were key markets.

THE saga of the portrait sold by Christie’s in 1998 as ‘19th century German’, but now claimed as a long-lost work by Leonardo da Vinci, has taken a new turn following the dismissal of the complaint against Christie’s lodged by the work’s consignor.

CONSOLIDATED annual sales at Sotheby’s were up 74% to £3.17bn ($4.8bn), including buyer’s premium, putting the firm marginally behind Christie’s, who posted results of £3.3bn ($5bn) last month.

ALBRECHT Dürer may not be the name most people would think of as producing the earliest printed star charts, but his will be the name that counts when Sotheby's offer a very rare pair of charts in a March 30 print sale.

AMONG the more unusual entries to Mallams' latest sale in Cheltenham was this early Victorian table carved from parrot coal.

A TAXIDERMY rhinoceros head mount has been stolen Sworders auction house in Stansted Mountfitchet in what police believe was a raid planned by professional thieves.

MORE than 20,000 naval postcards, thousands of photographs and slides, and a large quantity of books will be put up for sale at Lawrences in Crewkerne in May.

BONHAMS have appointed Anthony McNerney as head of Contemporary art.

ADAM Partridge is opening a new auction house in Liverpool, covering the whole of the Merseyside region, with the doors opening on March 2.