Auctions

Marvel comics in considerable numbers were a feature of a May 10 sale held by Golding Young & Mawer (20% buyer’s premium).

An ink and watercolour drawing from one of Hergé’s finest works achieved a stand-out result at a recent auction in France.

Three tribal art previews of objects being offered at auctions in Paris and Vienna.

It has been a generally encouraging spring at the UK rostrum. A latest look back at half-a-dozen auctions at major rooms reveals strong demand across the board of interests, and across the centuries to near the present day.

An early work by Yiannis Tsarouchis (1910-89) topped Bonhams’ Greek Sale in New Bond Street on May 2, selling above estimate at £120,000 (plus 25/20/12% buyer’s premium).

A trademark bronze sculpture by Lynn Chadwick (1914-2003) was the best-seller at a Modern and Contemporary Art & Design auction held by Chorley’s (20% buyer’s premium) at Prinknash Abbey Park in Gloucestershire.

Last year the UK’s regional salerooms were treated to a generous handful of five- and six-figure bids for unappreciated masterworks of Aboriginal and Oceanian art – a Maori putorino or bugle flute sold to a French dealer for £140,000 at John Nicholson’s of Haslemere among them.

Chinese ceramics tend to dominate Asian sales in the UK, but occasionally other mediums get to share the limelight.

British artists dominated Sworders’ (23% buyer’s premium) Modern & Contemporary prints sale in Essex, with works by Banksy, Patrick Hughes, Damien Hirst, Bridget Riley and Grayson Perry all getting away.

Science fiction and fantasy were among the lifelong principal collecting interests of the late Stanley Simon, a postal worker from Queens. In a recent 19th and 20th century literature sale held in his home city of New York a number of his books brought record bids.

One of the better reflections of the art world’s global reach is the tribal art market. No longer the preserve of a handful of aficionados or avant-garde early 20th century artists, the artefacts of non-European cultures are now the subject of worldwide interest and appreciation.

The best of the furniture from the contents of Faringdon House went to a Christie’s (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) Interiors sale, but perhaps the more interesting items from the 18th century Oxfordshire manor were handled by Wiltshire saleroom Kidson-Trigg (20% buyer’s premium).

Bid to $1.5m (£1.11m) in a record-breaking comic and comic art sale in Chicago was a Frank Frazetta artwork.

A stellar single-owner offering of works by the Scottish Colourists will be offered in a dedicated sale at Sotheby’s.

Bought in a French flea market as a set, seven 19th century salt-glazed fish-shaped spirit flasks were entered into Hannam’s (23% buyer’s premium) sale at Selborne as separate items, each estimated at £80-120.

Comic strip artworks to be offered as part of the June 5 ‘Illustration Art’ sale at Swann Auction Galleries will include a 1970 'Peanuts strip' by Charles Schulz estimated at $20,000-30,000.

Throughout the furniture depression, late Victorian and Edwardian chairs and sofas produced by the London firm of upholsterers Howard & Sons maintained their prices.

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

T Crowther & Sons was founded in 1880 in Fulham and was well established before the First World War. The company was split into two sections in the 1940s: Albert Crowther trading from Syon Lodge and T Crowther & Sons in Fulham.

Once-fashionable drum tables took a big hit during the furniture slump and while the best can do well, others can be picked up cheaply.