Auctions

The latest Old Master auctions in London produced the highest total for a December series for seven years.

The city of Newcastle enjoyed a long gold and silversmithing tradition.

A record has been set for a Maori work of art sold at auction in New Zealand.

Numerous pieces of British Aesthetic movement and Arts & Crafts silver were up for sale at Lempertz (26% buyer’s premium) in Cologne on November 21.

While Alan Turing has for some time now quite rightly received credit for his work at Bletchley Park during the Second World War, the contributions of the women who worked there can still be overlooked.

If this view of London by William Richardson (1814-99) looks as if St Paul’s Cathedral has been magically transported to the mouth of the Grand Canal in Venice, that might not be too surprising.

Sir Henry Doulton placed great importance on international exhibitions to promote the work of both of his factories.

For most of the buttoned-up Grand Tourists who visited Florence in the final years of the 19th century, it was only proper to take home a marble copy of a sober Renaissance or antique masterpiece. The Bazzanti or Frilli galleries were the place to go for a David or a Venus.

Ernest Gimson (1864-1919), a central figure in the British Arts & Crafts Movement, applied a clear, pared-back design approach influenced by William Morris.

Sale of collection with superb furniture included high-quality 18th century items in a different field

A small number of intriguing 18th and 19th century pictures were among the works bringing the strongest competition in terms of the pictures at Gorringe’s (25% buyer’s premium) latest Fine Art & Interiors auction.

The Saturn table lamp was produced for the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. While it is unclear which factory made them (some websites suggest the Houze Glass Company of Port Marion, Pennsylvania), they are considered classics of machine age Art Deco design.