Auctions

Christie’s South Kensington, a popular and influential fixture on the London auction scene for over 40 years, will hold its final sale next month.

Estimated at £15,000-25,000, a still-life by Dora Carrington (1893-1932) sold for £72,000 at Mallams in Oxford on May 26.

A Victorian silver snuff box engraved with a view of East Cliff Lodge in Ramsgate sold for a mighty £40,000 (plus 22% buyer‘s premium) at Matthew Barton‘s sale held at 25 Blythe Road, London, on May 24.

A painting by equine artist Lucy Kemp-Welch (1869-1958) sold for four times its top guide at Bellmans (20% buyer’s premium).

“It was one of those eureka moments,” said Rosemary Scott, Chinese ceramics specialist at Christie’s. “My colleague Jeremy Morgan was on a perfectly normal valuation visit when he walked into the drawing room and there, on the mantelpiece, he saw these vases. He couldn’t believe his eyes.”

In recent times a few examples of the 1947, Dutch text, first printing of Anne Frank’s famous diary (part of a print run of just 1500 copies) have come to auction.

A ‘gambling’ sale held on May 5-6 by Potter & Potter (20% buyer’s premium) produced what may be a record bid of $8500 (£6590) on a 1902 first of SW Erdnase’s The Expert at the Card Table.

Earlier this year Woolley & Wallis decorative arts specialist Michael Jeffery received a call out of the blue from the family of a recently deceased collector in the south of England.

A selection of stand-out results from auctions around the UK.

“Artworks from Underground Comix – especially from masters such as Robert Crumb – are becoming recognised in the fine art world as cultural cornerstones.”

A selection of vibrant prints, artist’s proofs and portrait studies by the 20th century artist Eduardo Paolozzi (1924-2005) is up for sale in County Durham.