Auctions

Auctioneer and valuer Clive Stewart-Lockhart has written a new biography of one of British Art Deco’s foremost figures - his great aunt Mary Stewart Lockhart, better known as Betty Joel (1894-1985).

Our selection of lots from 14 upcoming auctions

Aesthetic Movement designers and artists were in thrall to the peacock and its extravagant plumage.

Perhaps it was meant to be a trade sign. Maybe it was commissioned by someone who wanted to decorate a house with a big game trophy but lacked the funds to bag one.

One of the highest prices for a figurative work by Maxwell Ashby Armfield (1881-1972) came at an early spring sale at Plymouth Auction Rooms (20% buyer’s premium).

One lucky bidder landed a top-of-the-line big game fishing rod made expressly for Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961).

Held by the same Dutch family for just over 300 years, a very high-grade Elizabeth I gold Sovereign sold for £75,000 at London coin specialist Sovereign Rarities’ auction on March 13.

Britains is best known as a producer of toy soldiers, but some of its ‘civilian’ figures required a different sort of bunker.

A Tiffany Studios favrile glass window depicting a tree-fringed river leading to distant mountains took $450,000 (£347,000) at DuMouchelles (24% buyer’s premium) in Detroit, Michigan.

These two silver lots bear the mark of Henry George Murphy (1884-1939), whose Falcon Studio produced some of the finest English silver of the inter-war era.

Only a decade ago Carlton Ware designer Violet Elmer (1907-88) was a relative unknown compared with her contemporaries Clarice Cliff, Susie Cooper and Charlotte Rhead.

Archive on offer in Missouri saleroom includes items relating to a landmark 1913 procession for women

Swiss Alpine scene takes top spot in a family consignment as UK sale reveals considerable demand

Among the earliest examples of Australian gold rush jewellery are the simple signet rings sold to miners in the settlement of Ballarat in the 1850s as a memento of the boomtown days.

The London-based design company Isokon, which produced furniture by Wells Coates and Marcel Breuer, and Gerald Summers’ firm Makers of Simple Furniture both explored the radical possibilities of lamination.

As the Depression took hold, the clamour for luxury goods in tropical hardwoods, silver and shagreen was replaced by a demand for less expensive consumer goods that combined the modern aesthetic with new materials and industrial production.