Auctions

News and previews of art and antiques sold at auctions throughout the UK and overseas, from multi-million-pound blockbusters to affordable collectables.


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Bidders battle for Old Masters in Vienna and Cologne

12 June 2017

Recent Old Master paintings in Vienna and Cologne have yielded some predicted but also unexpected results including a high price for a work by a German better known for his poems and plays than his paintings.

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Rediscovered John Fromanteel longcase clock emerges at Bonhams

12 June 2017

In recent years, Bonhams has uncovered several previously unrecorded English Golden Age clocks and at the sale of Fine Clocks on June 29 it will be presenting a recently discovered longcase clock by London maker John Fromanteel.

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Silver standard sets pulses racing at Dublin auction

12 June 2017

Dublin dealer sells an Irish selection as he hands the reins of the shop over to his son.

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The words on the street - record for Sinclair Lewis' 1920 first at Swann

12 June 2017

Condition leaves a little to be desired, but the spine of this copy of Sinclair Lewis’ 'Main Street' and the matching details on the jacket mark it out as a 1920 first, published by Harcourt, Brace & Howe of New York.

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Asian auctions make a ‘Gexit’

12 June 2017

German salerooms move series to Austria and Belgium in the wake of cultural goods law...

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Bakelite watch survives ravages of time

12 June 2017

In 1953 Pan Am Airlines approached Rolex with a request for a watch that could show the time simultaneously in two different time zones.

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‘Bruges Master’ produces something of the knight at German auction

12 June 2017

“A masterpiece of Flemish book illumination,” said Reiss & Sohn (18% buyer’s premium) of a rare manuscript compendium of texts on chivalry, heraldry, nobility and the rules of war offered in its May 16-18 sales series.

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Bid Barometer

12 June 2017

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period June 1-7, 2017. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

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Tower of strength as figural clock takes £5000 at Chiswick Auctions

12 June 2017

Figural clocks combining novelty and automaton features were very popular in the 19th century, many of them being of French manufacture.

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Phoenix rises from tiger's ashes at Irish auctions

12 June 2017

Spring sale results provide promising upturn as Irish art market shows signs of recovery.

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Book at German auctioneers led to an Inquisition

12 June 2017

Bid to a double-estimate €42,000 (£36,290) in a Ketterer Kunst (20% buyer’s premium) sale of May 22 was a very rare, 1566-67 Lisbon first of 'Chronica da felicissimo rei dom Emanuel…'

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Malaysian artist makes rare visit

12 June 2017

The Malayan artist Cheong Soo Pieng (1917-83) is hardly a household name in Europe. Virtually all of his paintings that have sold at auction in recent decades came under the hammer in Hong Kong or Singapore.

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Calculating a good price - slide rule fetches £9500 at auction

12 June 2017

Readers old enough to remember using one at school may also recall Sam Cooke’s 1960 song in which he lamented “don’t know what a slide rule is for”. Today, few teenagers would know what one was.

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Essex sale benefits from Herculean effort

12 June 2017

A major work by French academy painter Edouard Joseph Dantan (1846-97), unseen for over a century, has emerged at an auction in Colchester.

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Horological high achievers at Sotheby's

12 June 2017

Not all the clocks that go under the hammer feature in dedicated horological sales. Pictured here is a selection of some recent highlights at Sotheby's auctions from mixed-discipline sales.

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Clock to celebrate Garrard's Royal approval sells at £1700

12 June 2017

Established in London in 1735, jeweller Garrard has had a long association with the British Royal family.

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Trio of record-breakers at Forum Auctions

12 June 2017

The three lots briefly described here were not among the very highest priced lots in a Forum Auctions (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) sale of May 24 – but all brought record bids.

ATG Letter: It's time to recognise scupltor John Skeaping as more than just ‘the first husband of Barbara Hepworth’

12 June 2017

MADAM - I would like to offer an alternative point of view to that of Jenny Fisher, head of modern and contemporary art at Dreweatts, which recently sold a sculpture by my father, John Skeaping.

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Clocks and watches: craftsmanship with precision timing

12 June 2017

ATG's special report on horological highlights with superb examples of modern craftsmanship, auction previews and results, and the world of wall clocks described by expert Edward Burd...

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Hand of Daum is good news at Cheltenham auction

12 June 2017

Conscious that Art Nouveau Daum glassware has been bringing renewed interest of late, auctioneer Catrin Hampton was quickly in touch with potential buyers – particularly Americans – when a table lamp was brought into the Cheltenham rooms of Chorley’s (20% buyer’s premium).

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