Auctions

The sale to held by Blackwell auctions in Florida on November 10 will include a selection of books from the library of Dromoland Castle, the Irish castle in County Clare where the historic ‘Armada table’ sold last month by Adam’s in Drogheda, Ireland, for €360,000 was housed for 300 years (ATG No 2364).

A selection of preview highlights from upcoming American auctions, including a terracotta bust by Maurice Guiraud-Rivier.

ATG’s calendar of auctions taking place in the US and Canada in November and December 2018.

Prices for the best British automobilia are slowly catching up with the huge sums regularly paid for advertising and promotional material in the US.

On June 13, 1913, just five days after the infamous death of Emily Wilding Davison under the king’s horse at the Derby, two Suffragettes set fire to the Hurst Park grandstand in Surrey.

British watercolours and oils from the 18th and 19th centuries grabbed bidders’ attention at a recent Oxford auction, proving there is life in this traditional market given the right artists and good provenance.

Illustrated below is a spread from a 1488 edition of a popular account of travels to various parts of the world that is generally referred to as a compilation by Sir John Mandeville.

“It was a great deal of work,” said Adam’s (20% buyer’s premium) managing director James O’Halloran of the operation involving the removal of 700 lots – including the ‘Armada Table’ and other massive pieces – to the Drogheda stately home venue of Townley Hall for sale.

The name of the Russian Arctic circle riverine port of Kholmogory derives ultimately from the Finnish Kalmomäki for ‘corpse hill’ or ‘cemetery’, but this is regarded as coincidental to its reputation for carved bonework.

The National Ballistics and Intelligence Service (NABIS) has warned of a rise in defectively deactivated firearms offered at auction since the law changed this summer.

A newly discovered Ottoman charger described as one of the most important pieces of Iznik pottery remaining in private hands was the toast of Islamic Week, selling at Sotheby’s for a spectacular £4.55m (£5.4m including buyer’s premium).

Included in the Important Design sale at Phillips in London on October 18 was an unusual mantel clock designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869- 1944).