Auctions

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period April 19-25, 2018. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

Since the start of the Chinese boom at UK auctions many, if not most, estimates have been little more than here-to-sell signals. Settling on a figure with which vendors are happy with, and then leaving it to the worldwide market on the net, is now common practice.

A volume containing Richard Hooker’s sixth and eighth books dealing with The Lawes of Ecclesiastical Policy… is a 1651 re-issue of an edition first published three years earlier. The principal attraction, however, was the armorial binding.

A classic, rare 1938 poster for the London Underground designed by the Surrealist artist Man Ray is one of the highlights of a graphic design sale to be held by Swann Galleries on May 3.

Manchester United fans grumbling about the current style of play will be interested to learn that when Matt Busby joined as manager he was contractually obliged to play entertaining football.

A 10in (25cm) tall Kangxi period (1654-1722) rouleau vase painted with fishermen and cranes took a six-times estimate £2800 at the 1200-lot Spring Sale at Hansons (20% buyer’s premium) on March 22-26.

The last weekend of the month, May 25-27, is given over to the latest staging of the Journées Marteau (Art Auctioneers Days) held by the French auctioneers’ association SYMEV.

Survivals of ancient classical sculpture carved from ivory are incredibly rare, so the appearance on the market of this naturalistically carved ancient Greek horse’s head is a notable occasion.

Delayed by snow for a week, the Spring Sale at Chorley’s (20% buyer’s premium) on March 27 opened with a local collection of Republic-era (1912-49) porcelain.

Weschlers’ mixed-owner Capital Collections sale in Rockville, Maryland, on May 11 will offer a very wide range of fine and decorative arts.

The feast from the east that that has put bread (and some Michelin-starred meals) on the table of dealers and auctioneers for more than a decade continues to do so at sales from Scotland to Surrey.

Published in 1895, Wright & Dixon’s Guide to American Golf… was one of the very first books on the game to appear in that country. A copy sold on April 12 in San Francisco for $42,500 (£29,930) was billed as “perhaps the only copy extant”.

Multi-estimate sums proved the norm among the star lots during London’s Islamic Week auction series.

Chinese porcelain resumed its traditional dominance among the Oriental offerings at Tennants (20% buyer’s premium) in Leyburn.

An ideal marriage of skills, rather than a clash of cultures, put a pair of c.1790-1800 Chinese export vases into the limelight at Hannam’s (20% buyer’s premium) sale at Selborne.

Three more modestly valued works drawing attention at recent regional sales below £1500 included a Venetian view by English painter Peter Kuhfeld.

One of the smallest but most eye-catching lots at the Oriental sale at Bonhams Edinburgh (25% buyer’s premium) was two 4¼in (11cm) high Manchu officials’ bronze seals.

Works by the flamboyant Lord Berners come to auction from Faringdon House contents sale.

Early works painted before an artist has adopted their signature style can make for intriguing viewing – especially if that artist is widely known.

First such pocket atlas published in England leads a look at highly diverse auction selection