Auctioneers

Works coming to auction from artists’ estates give a never-seen-before quality and personal attraction

While few will welcome the news that Bonhams – the last of the major auction houses to hold regular sales Japanese works of art in London – is moving its department to Paris (ATG No 2690), there will be opportunities for UK salerooms that continue to plough this selective but occasionally fruitful furrow.

Although cautiously catalogued, the Library Collection sale at Adam’s (25% buyer’s premium) in Dublin on April 29 included three pieces of Roman statuary that had been in an Irish private collection since around 1940.

Christened Amanda but always known by her middle name, Jane was an unlikely but highly successful picture specialist at Christie’s South Kensington.

Letters found in family archive include first-hand accounts from St Helena in 1821

Sheet of various figures and body parts in red and white chalk set an auction record for Primaticcio

A Citroën 2CV toy car is not quite as glamorous as a Lotus Esprit, even when the full-size version helps to save James Bond in an epic chase.

Matthew Boulton’s inventory of stock in 1782 lists “1 small figure of Minerva”, according to Nicholas Goodison’s Ormolu: the Work of Matthew Boulton, 1974.

Silverware with connections to key figures from the famous French firm of Puiforcat proved to be a major component in a sale of items from a Parisian family collection held by Beaussant Lefèvre (28% buyer’s premium).

An untitled abstract by Gillian Ayres (1930-2018) was among the works attracting interest from the collection of Simon and Jennifer Murray at Dore & Rees (25% buyer’s premium) in Somerset.

Leading a recent sale at Sheffield Auction Gallery (24% buyer’s premium) was a pair of George III ormolu mounted Derbyshire fluorspar candle vases.

By the time H Turner’s book on billiards came out in 1849 (Northampton, printed for the author by JT Burgess) the game was hundreds of years old – with roots back to the 15th century.

A round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days, including the acquisition of Adams Blackrock by Ross's Auctioneers