Auctions

More homely than the material being produced in Scandinavia and France, the adzed oak furniture first made by Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson in the 1920s-30s was, nevertheless, a distinctive genre.

Based in one of the great centres of English glass, Fieldings (20% buyer’s premium) of Stourbridge has been building its reputation for glass sales over the past 15 years and today “nobody sells more glass than we do”, says specialist Will Farmer.

After abandoning his early career as a contributor to Punch and the Illustrated London News, Myles Birket Foster (1825-99) went on to establish his reputation as a painter of technically skilled and highly polished watercolours, depicting landscapes and rustic subjects from Scotland to the Mediterranean.

It was during the First World War that the convenience of the wristwatch began to replace the pocketwatch but it really came into its own with the production of bespoke ‘tool’ watches for submariners and airmen later in the century.

When it comes to early or vintage photographs the interest is often centred around the social history of the material – the camera’s ability to document past events, be they special occasions or scenes of everyday life.

Early views of China are often best-sellers in the realm of topographical photography. An album of 83 albumen prints from the 1860s-70s proved to be a major attraction at Bonhams’ latest book sale held in Knightsbridge.

Some time in the early 1930s, the burghers of Norwich City Council appear to have been sufficiently cutting-edge as to purchase furniture by the designer destined to become one of the major names of 20th century design, Alvar Aalto (1898-1976).

Two first-edition versions of George Orwell’s 'The Road to Wigan Pier', the first part of which is an investigation into the working-class living conditions in Lancashire, Yorkshire and the industrial north, were published in 1937.

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period April 4-10, 2019. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

Watch collectors priced out of the market for blue-chip branded sports models are finding value for money elsewhere.

A label to this 21 x 16½in (53 x 42cm) print reads 'Photograph of the Moon, taken by Prof Henry Draper, MD, with a silvered glass Telescope, Fifteen and a Half Inches Aperture, Hastings NY September 3rd 1863'.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

Zooming to a rather higher than predicted result in a collectables auction held earlier this month by Southgate Auction Rooms (20% buyer’s premium) was this camera and slides.

When it comes to 20th century furniture female designers are a rarity. Some folk still think ‘Ray’ Eames – real name Bernice – was a man.

A double helping of vintage cameras and photographic equipment was recently staged at Chartres by the Ivoire group Lelièvre, Pascal, Maiche, Paris (20% buyer’s premium).

A private single-owner collection of around 180 lots from one vintage photographer was the subject of a recent sale held by Chiswick Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) in London.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from April 16-27, 2019.

Heuer watches, steeped in racing history, are among the ‘secondary’ or ‘niche’ Swiss brands that have entered the mainstream collecting arena in the past decade.

The recent Modern Living sale at Tennants (20% buyer’s premium) was dominated by ‘Mouseman’ furniture, something of a speciality at the Leyburn rooms.

The financial highlight at Lyon & Turnbull’s (25% buyer’s premium) inaugural Modern Made auction at the Mall Galleries in London was provided by an auction record for Malaysian Modernist painter and poet Abdul Latiff Mohidin (b.1938).