Auctions

News and previews of art and antiques sold at auctions throughout the UK and overseas, from multi-million-pound blockbusters to affordable collectables.


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Coronavirus: Phillips postpones international auction schedule

15 March 2020

Auction house Phillips has decided to postpone all of its sales and events globally until mid-May.

Johann Marti Levien table

Victorian table, Duleep Singh’s hawking bell and Ottoman portrait miniature – five auction highlights that caught bidders’ eyes

13 March 2020

ATG’s selection of hammer highlights this week includes an occasional table by Johan Marti Levien made from exotic New Zealand woods that made six-times estimate in Newbury.

Elizabeth I cup

Elizabethan silver makes rare appearance in Swiss auction

12 March 2020

Elizabethan silver rarely appears at auctions in continental Europe, so an upcoming collection being offered for sale at Koller in Zurich is something of a special occasion.

Taxidermy penguin

Taxidermy penguin from Scott’s doomed Antarctica expedition attracts attention at Sworders

11 March 2020

A taxidermy Adélie penguin collected by scientists during the Terra Nova Antarctic Expedition from 1910-1913 drew strong interest at an auction in Essex this week.

Sony-Nintendo PlayStation gaming console

‘A pivotal piece of video game history’: PlayStation prototype from failed Sony-Nintendo partnership draws huge bidding in Texas auction

11 March 2020

A prototype of the PlayStation has sold for $300,000 at auction in Texas. The 28-year-old gaming console, offered by Heritage Auctions as part of a sale in Dallas this week is thought to be the sole survivor from 200 made during a failed joint-venture between Sony and Nintendo in c.1992.

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Goddess of love tempts bidders and sells for £60,000 at Dominic Winter

09 March 2020

This finely modelled Hellenistic white marble figure of Aphrodite sold for £60,000 (plus 24% buyer’s premium) at Dominic Winter in South Cerney on March 5. Bidding opened at £30,000, twice the low estimate, before bids were exchanged between the internet and the phones.

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Pick of the week: House clearance chairs are £16,500 Voysey Arts & Crafts originals

09 March 2020

Arts & Crafts enthusiasts who hoped to buy a pair of Voysey chairs at something close to their £20-40 estimate at an auction in the Cotswolds were to be disappointed.

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‘Dragon’ dishes fire up a house record in East Yorkshire

09 March 2020

A pair of doucai ‘dragon’ dishes that was entered for sale by a local vendor sold for over 25-times estimate at East Yorkshire saleroom Hawley’s.

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Pair of Old Masters sets new picture high for Woolley & Wallis

09 March 2020

A spectacular competition came at Woolley & Wallis’ latest picture sale as 12 bidders pursued a pair of Italian Old Masters which the auction house had spotted tucked away in a dark corner of the vendor’s top landing.

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New discovery of coin marking the end of silver offered at Baldwin’s

09 March 2020

As the Standard Catalogue of British Coins points out, this tiny denomination, the George VI silver threepence dated 1945 , essentially marks the end of the silver coinage and the beginning of modern coins made of copper-nickel and brass.

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Shelley ceramics, a Queen Anne silver bowl and a Saxon silver penny – five lots to watch at auction this week

09 March 2020

With estimates from £600-15,000, here are five previews of upcoming items this week.

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Bid Barometer: issue 2433

09 March 2020

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period February 27- March 4, 2020. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

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Notorious female pirates inspired later authors

09 March 2020

Shown below is a plate from A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most Notorious Pyrates… sold at Lyon & Turnbull (25% buyer’s premium) on February 19

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Mucha maidens are saleroom gems

09 March 2020

A highlight of the first sale of this year held by Poster Auctions International (20% buyer’s premium) in New York on February 23 was a rare 1902 set of four poster panels designed by Alphonse Mucha.

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Freeman's flagship gallery off to fine launch

09 March 2020

First auction to be held in Freeman’s new Philadelphia site topped by Degas and Van Gogh

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Dying Cleopatra immortalised in marble

09 March 2020

The Premier Auction at Brunk (23% buyer’s premium) in Asheville, North Carolina included this 3ft 10in (1.17m) carrara marble Cleopatra morente by the Italian sculptor Pio Fedi (1816-92).

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Cumbrian archive offered at auction recalls D-Day’s floating harbours

09 March 2020

An historic archive belonging to the engineer who oversaw the design of the Mulberry Harbours in the Second World War comes to auction in Cumbria later this month.

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Modest but marvellous Mouseman

09 March 2020

This set of table and chairs by the ever-popular Mouseman had been bought from the Kilburn workshops in the 1970s by the vendor’s parents.

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Middle Eastern medical manuscript proves to be £70,000 saleroom cure

09 March 2020

Said to date from the 12th-14th century, an incomplete and dampstained Middle Eastern medical manuscript sold for £70,000 at Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium) on February 22.

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Miniature terrestrial pocket globe offered in Massachusetts

09 March 2020

This English miniature terrestrial pocket globe complete with a shagreen case, its interior lined with a celestial map, will feature in the spring sale at CRN Auctions in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on March 15.

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