News topics

The first specialist pub memorabilia sale of the year held by Co Cavan auction house Victor Mee (19% buyer’s premium) showed no drying up of demand in a lively market niche.

A round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days, including an original document relating to the first impeachment resolution vote against a US president being offered at Bonhams New York.

Group of paintings by one of the less well-known masters of the medium comes to light

Three modestly valued works selling at regional sales including a Marjorie Bruford Cornish village scene.

The overall total from the latest London series of Contemporary art auctions was down year-on-year. With one day sale still to run at the time of going to press, the running total of £197.4m from the sales at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips compared to £253.9m from the equivalent sales in 2019.

This large lithograph forms part of the Weather Series, a suite of prints created by David Hockney (b.1937) in 1973.

Dealer Michael Shapiro’s exhibition of Modernist photography showcases works capturing a fundamental shift in style.

Beer was the preferred beverage of all classes in 16th century England and much of it was drunk from imported Rhenish salt-glazed stoneware.

A selection of upcoming entertainment lots at auctions ranging from the Fab Four in New York to James Bond in London and Tommy Cooper in Stockport.

Concert posters from the earliest days of bands that later became famous are particulary sought-after at auction. Leading this selection from recent sales is a five-figure example from 1964 which promotes one of the first Rolling Stones tour performances, but many others are available at a lower price range announcing appearances at venues with evocative names such as Bridlington Spa Hall, Basildon Locarno Ballroom and Barnston Women’s Institute.

Drew Pritchard is enlarging his showroom in the Welsh market town of Conwy. The first set of works are set to last about six to eight weeks, and the shop will be closed from February 21-March 25.

Many familiar names were represented in a concentrated 145-lot specialist sale of British and Continental glass at McTear’s (24% buyer’s premium), but the winner by a distance was Lalique’s Formose green glass vase.

Not all the posters making four figures at auction fall into the usual Star Wars/James Bond/Hammer/early horror bracket.

When buying back their heritage, Cardiff City FC and supporters may not be in the same financial league as Manchester United, but they were a welcome factor at Lockdales (19.5% buyer’s premium).

The Fish Footman puppet is among the most sought after of the entire back catalogue of Pelham Puppets.

According to patent documents dated February 1928, Woodlite headlamps invented by a William G Woods of Los Angeles were said to give the driver better illumination of distant objects ahead.

While furniture and books fully justified its title, The Oxford Library Sale at Mallams (22.5% buyer’s premium) was led by a surprise star: a rather lowly regarded gesso bust of the sort that would have been a minor decoration to such a room.

A collection of automaton advertising panels formed by two dedicated enthusiasts over a 20-year period will go under the hammer on March 12 at Drouot in Paris in a sale mounted by Auction Art Rémy le Fur.

MADAM – Reading about the unfortunate theft of a Handley & Moore bracket clock from the shop of Patrick Sandberg on Kensington Church Street on February 3 (ATG No 2429) reminded me of the clock (pictured below) that had sadly been stolen from my parents’ home in Burford, Oxfordshire, in 1984.