Auctions

An American library on the history of computing formed by the late Erwin Tomash provided the new season’s first major sale.

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period September 20-26, 2018. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

Heritage Auctions in Texas sold this Broadwood amboyna and giltwood grand piano for $22,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) at a recent auction. Evidently it had been on quite a journey.

Jean Théodore Descourtilz’s Oiseaux brillans du Brésil “…is so rare that I had begun to doubt its existence”.

In the UK Huntley and Palmers and McVitie’s might be the brand names to trip off the tongue at the mention of the word biscuit. In France it is LU that first comes to mind.

British studio pottery, once the preserve of a small number of devotees, currently ranks among the strongest subsets of the art and antiques market. In the first element of a two-part feature, ATG considers the London market.

“A truly beautiful medal and a royal provenance make this something quite out of the ordinary. And, without hesitation, we can say that it is unique.” Stephen Fenton, specialist at Baldwin’s of St James’s, singled out a George IV accession medal as a highlight of the Peter Earthy collection.

They won’t show it on the rostrum and probably not with clients but auction house professionals do have a likeness for particular artists.

Gerard Sekoto (1913-93) is cementing his place as one of the most bankable names in the field of South African art.

The only known item of silverware to have survived from a lavish diplomatic gift presented to Louis XIV by the King of Siam has been acquired by the Palace of Versailles via a private treaty sale through auction firm Beaussant Lefèvre.

The profile of Scottish potter Jennifer Lee (b. 1956) received a £50,000 boost at the Royal Centre for Design in Kensington this summer when she won the Loewe Craft Prize 2018 with her abstract stoneware vessel illustrated here.

A collection of fashion books and plates offered as part of an Exeter sale on September 12 was led at £1050 by an 1831, second edition of John Jackson’s The Improved Tailor’s Aera.

Three modestly valued works in regional sales, all sold below £900 including a view of St Peters in the Vatican by Scottish architect Basil Spence.

The ‘British’ studio ceramics movement has long been backed by overseas talent. In addition to Lucie Rie, Hans Coper and Ruth Duckworth (nee Windmuller), who fled the Nazis in the 1930s, and Hamada Shoji’s collaboration with Bernard Leach, is the contribution of Kenyan-born Magdalene Odundo (b. 1950).

Our round-up of British and Irish book sales coming up from October 2-12, 2018.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

Before finally achieving success in 1945 with The Pursuit of Love and then with Love in a Cold Climate, Nancy Mitford had published three novels. Two of these made record sums in a recent Stansted sale.