Auctions

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period December 6-12, 2018. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

Results from the December 2018 auction series of Old Masters in London.

Dutch and Flemish art also dominated takings at Sotheby's in New Bond Street on December 5. The category was 90% sold and netted the lion’s share of the sale at £24.6m (with premium), against hopes of £16.8m-23.7m.

When this Monet maritime sunset below was hammered down for €860,000 (£767,860) – or €1.18m/£1.05m including premium – in Millon’s (25% buyer’s premium) sale of Modern Art on November 26 it not only overturned its €80,000-100,000 estimate but also achieved the second highest result at auction for a pastel by the famous French Impressionist.

The bronze pieces produced by Rene Lalique are perhaps less well-known than the master’s jewellery and glass but seldom so under-rated that they are consigned to the dustbin, as was the case with this c.1910 hand mirror, below.

The two sewing boxes modelled as houses shown below were made for different markets but both had strong appeal to UK collectors.

On the market for the first time in at least 60 years, and in some cases for more than a century, a small collection of 17th and 18th century silver accounted for a fraction of the lots but 20% of the total at the two-day winter sale at Canterbury Auction Galleries (24% buyer’s premium).

Russian literary firsts and related manuscripts were the focus of one of the many major sales held in the UK, Europe and the US at the year’s end.

Combining results from the Albada collection and its evening sale, Christie’s achieved its highest evening total for a December Old Masters sale in London for seven years.

Featuring 17 lithographed illustrations by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, one of 100 special copies of Gustave Geoffroy’s 1894 homage to the celebrated singer, actress and, in later years, writer, Yvette Guilbert – all of which were signed by the chanteuse – is shown here.

The highlight of the specialist sale of firearms and militaria held by Pook & Pook (22% buyer’s premium) in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, on November 17 was this matched pair of 18th century flintlock pistols.

After a summer series remembered for its quirky ‘warts and all’ portraiture and an improbable list of celebrity endorsers, including former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham who hosted a series of Sotheby’s consignments at her London fashion showroom, Old Masters were back in familiar territory for the latest offerings in London.

This Omega ‘Weems’ Royal Air Force pilot’s wristwatch below was one of the sought-after entries in a 311-lot auction of watches and jewellery at Miller & Miller (18/15% buyer’s premium) in New Hamburg, Ontario, on November 24.

Eclipsed in price by a £150,000 pearl (News, ATG No 2369), the c.1810 Swiss gold automaton pocket watch shown below was at least as eye-catching at the Roseberys (25% buyer’s premium) jewellery and watches auction on November 20.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from December 18-January 17, 2018.

Selection of contents from landmark French inter-war modernist building resurface after 1985 dispersal.

Golden Age Dutch art topped the bill at Bonhams in the December 5 sale via a fresh-to-market still-life attributed to the 17th century painter Pieter Claesz (1597-1660), which sold for over four times the estimate at £130,000.