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.

Regarded by many as Gustav Mahler’s greatest song for voice and orchestra, ‘Ich bin der Weit abhanden gekommen’ was just one of many first-class performances featured in a 53-lot music sale conducted by Sotheby’s (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) on May 23.

Christie’s UK chairman says the closure of Christie’s South Kensington, the largest upheaval in the firm’s recent history, “has been a very painful decision for all but for the long-term health of the business it is right”.

For the most important ceremonies and rituals, high-ranking Chinese officials along with the royal family would don the chao fu or full court dress. At the Qing court a whole range of garments and paraphernalia were associated with the chao fu – a hat, collar, necklace, girdle and boots – but the most important were the chao pao and jifu, the court robes. Their use was restricted to high-ranking officials and persons.

“In the 19th century, before football came along, it was all about field sports,” says Iain Byatt-Smith of Bonhams’ (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) Scottish picture department.

A Charles-Francois Daubigny (1817-78) painting that had been in the same private collection since 1963 topped Nesbits’ (19% buyer’s premium) sale in Portsmouth on May 17.

Yves Montand (1921-91) and Simone Signoret (1921-85) were famous French husband-and-wife actors with starring roles in many French films.

This depiction of a 16th century bullfight in Siena’s Piazza del Campo starred in Christie’s (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) sale of the collection of the late Lord Weidenfeld.

A clutch of photograph sales is coming up this month in Paris. Among them is Millon and Baron Ribeyre’s two-day auction on June 13 and 16.

This drawing of a young girl by the Dutch-born artist Sir Peter Lely (1618-80), who was official portrait painter to the English court, features in a sale at Ivoire Nantes on June 13.