Auctions

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


img_30-5.jpg

Previews: issue 2701

07 July 2025

Our selection of lots from seven upcoming auctions

img_34-3.jpg

Compelling canine eyes draw you in

07 July 2025

This 18 x 15in (45 x 38cm) oil portrait of an English springer spaniel is by the great Orientalist Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904).

img_35-1.jpg

Luxury car company may have skimped on poster artist

07 July 2025

Rolling to top lot honours in New York at Swann Auction Galleries (25% buyer’s premium) was a 1929 poster for the long defunct automotive brand Pierce-Arrow.

img_15-1.jpg

Wedgwood hails an American spy

07 July 2025

A rarity at a recent Woolley & Wallis (26% buyer’s premium) ceramics and glass sale was a late 18th century Wedgwood basalt intaglio seal, featuring a profile portrait of the notorious American spy Captain Nathan Hale (1755-76) beside the reversed inscription 'My Country!!!'.

img_19-2.jpg

Lalique lost wax located at auction

07 July 2025

Lyon & Turnbull’s (26% buyer’s premium) sale marking the centenary of the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes - the event that later gave Art Deco its name - included a Lalique glass vase that was shown at the event. Quatre Figurines Femmes Formant Soutien, standing 6½in (17cm) high and modelled as a quartet of crouching female nudes supporting an ovoid bowl, was made using the cire perdue (or lost wax) technique.

img_27-1.jpg

Sex sells: The Pearl erotic magazine

07 July 2025

The notorious Victorian-era erotic magazine 'The Pearl' (subtitled 'Journal of Facetiae and Voluptuous Reading') was published by William Lazenby in London between July 1879 and December 1880.

Books and works on paper auction calendar, July 8-29, 2025

07 July 2025

Our regular listing of UK and Irish books and works on paper sales

img_35-3.jpg

Spot the goalie competition: toy footballers score at auction

07 July 2025

Footballers were among the very first of the Britains hollowcast lead ‘civilian’ figures.

img_26-1.jpg

Ornithologist provenance trumps pope, cardinal and king owners

07 July 2025

Watercolour can be traced back to nobleman and antiquary who commissioned the illustrator Leonardi

img_16-1.jpg

Lowestoft porcelain collecting focus shifts back to East Anglia

07 July 2025

Two auctions held in the region underline demand for the locally produced ceramics

img_35-2.jpg

Lalique fox mascot with ‘many imperfections’ still takes $27,000 at US auction

07 July 2025

One of the rarest of all of the 31 car mascots made by Lalique from 1925-31 came up for auction at Jeffrey Evans & Associates (25% buyer’s premium) in Mount Crawford, Virginia.

img_17-2.jpg

The hand of Holland

07 July 2025

A collection of ceramics by the Hanley-born pottery painter Arthur Holland (1896 1979) comes for sale at Potteries Auctions in Newcastle-under-Lyme on July 12.

img_26-2.jpg

Fleming signature boosts rare copy of Bond

07 July 2025

The presence of the author’s signature dramatically enhanced the value of a copy of Ian Fleming’s (1908-64) first collection of James Bond short stories 'For Your Eyes Only' offered at an auction at University Archives (25% buyer’s premium).

img_15-4.jpg

Plates pay homage to physic garden

07 July 2025

Chelsea Red Anchor period ‘Hans Sloane’ plates are named with reference to the royal physician, traveller, and natural historian who helped transform the Chelsea Physic Garden into a centre of botanical knowledge during the Enlightenment.

img_28-1.jpg

Woolf takes bidders to the lighthouse

07 July 2025

Swann Auction Galleries (25% buyer’s premium) recorded head-turning sales during its series of New York sales in May.

img_27-2.jpg

Works of Confucius with French royal twist

07 July 2025

A foundation document of Western sinology appeared at Freeman’s Hindman (28% buyer’s premium) in Chicago.

img_18-3.jpg

Interest lodged in Beilby tumblers

07 July 2025

Among the great Beilby discoveries of recent times was the emergence - from two separate sources across 14 years - of six small firing glasses decorated in red, yellow and white enamel with Masonic emblems.

img_14-1.jpg

Liverpool and Limehouse: Maurice Hillis ceramics collection appears at Bonhams

07 July 2025

Ceramics expert’s collection sold at auction included notable pieces made on Merseyside but also a Limehouse cup that proved very popular with bidders

Landseer landscape

Landseer view of a loch without animal life brightens US auction

07 July 2025

British artist famed for The Monarch of the Glen also painted landscapes for his own pleasure

img_19-1.jpg

Essex glass extra

07 July 2025

A biannual addition to Sworders’ calendar is The Glass Sale - the first on October 28.

News

Categories