Auctions

Art and antiques businesses in England are more prepared for trading through this new lockdown having gained experience last time around.

In 1793, well in advance of the Slave Trade Act (1807) and the Slavery Abolition Act (1833), 275 British men, women and children attempted to settle an uninhabited island off the coast of Sierra Leone.

Two pieces by ‘Glasgow Four’ artists Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) and Frances Macdonald McNair (1873-1921) topped Lyon & Turnbull’s Decorative Arts: Design since 1860 auction on November 2-3.

Christie’s has axed its stand-alone sales of topographical pictures and will incorporate the specialist department into the 19th century picture department based in London. Consignments in this area will now be offered in auctions in the wider category.

Shifting Covid-19 regulations have complicated the Irish and Scottish art markets but online and phone bidding has helped to keep results relatively robust

The Fine Wine & Whisky sale at Tennants on December 12 features this Macallan-Glenlivet 1937 35-year-old Pure Highland Malt Scotch Whisky.

Principal attraction in a Crewkerne book sale at Lawrences (25% buyers premium) was the Browning family archive that featured as Pick of the Week in ATG No 2459, but three other items from that 370 lot sale are noted here.

Swann Galleries is holding a 476-lot sale of Old Master to Modern prints spanning the 16th to 20th centuries in New York on November 12.

This 19in (48cm) high late 18th century English mahogany cased bracket clock is one of the horological entries in Fontaine’s online auction to be held in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on November 14.

Bertoia Auctions’ latest wide-ranging toy sale in Vineland, New Jersey, on November 12-13 includes this early Steiff teddy bear dating from c.1905.

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

Estimated at £200-300 in a Kent sale, a military commission that bears the signature of King George III and is additionally signed and endorsed by William Pitt the Elder, Britain’s prime minister at the time of the Seven Years War, sold online instead for £7500.

Two Scottish coastal pictures attracted multiple bidders at Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) latest Art & Design sale.

Strong pre-sale interest emerged for two magnums of champagne offered separately at the Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium) Sussex Interiors including Asian Works of Art, Wines & Spirits auction in Wisborough Green on October 20.

A Chateau De Pomès Pédérère Armagnac distilled in 1950 is estimated at £200-300 at McTear’s Rare & Fine Whisky Auction on December 16.

Ewbank’s Fine Wines & Spirits auction in Surrey on December 17 includes this bottle of Bas Armagnac Baron de Sigognac 1951.

Christie’s holds its Finest and Rarest Wines and Spirits sale in London on December 11.

As with fellow Dublin saleroom Whyte’s, Adam’s (25% buyer’s premium inc VAT) latest Irish art sale was led by a Paul Henry.