Auctions

In a loss to the sector, Bonhams has shelved its sales of Japanese works of art in London. Specialist Suzannah Yip, who had led Bonhams’ department for 18 years, has left the company after a decision was taken to move operations to Paris.

A diminutive Quaker pin cushion made to raise funds for a pioneering mental health hospital in York has sold for a remarkable sum at Woolley & Wallis.

Among the more extraordinary forms of French furniture is the ‘machine pneumatique’ – a device used in the Age of Enlightenment to demonstrate the mysterious properties of the vacuum or ‘the energy of the nothingness’.

Seven works by Ithell Colquhoun (1906-88) lead Bonhams’ inaugural British Surrealism sale running until May 1.

In typical fashion, a landscape by Irish art market heavyweight Paul Henry (1877-1958) took top honours at the latest round of auctions in Dublin – though its sale to an online bidder was an unexpected twist.

In 1950, the Swiss artist, architect and designer Pierre Jeanneret (1896-1967) joined his cousin Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (who assumed the pseudonym Le Corbusier) to create a new capital of Punjab.

Welsh auction house Rogers Jones (26.4% buyer’s premium inc VAT) recently conducted its largest house clearance in over 30 years: the principal contents of Plas Teg in Flintshire.

Whatever interior statement one hopes to achieve, it is so often the furniture that really makes a room.

An impressive 19th century longcase regulator attracted several bidders at a sale held by Metz (28/25% buyer’s premium) in Heidelberg.

An unmistakable piece of modern furniture is the highlight of the sale on May 16 at Lempertz in Cologne.

Estimated at €1000, this 19th century Irish mahogany bureau with a link to Sir Winston Churchill sold for €9500 (£8000) at Fonsie Mealy (25% buyer’s premium) in Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny.

A number of hall chairs of this idiosyncratic type from the early years of the ‘age of mahogany’ are known and have appeared on the market.