Print Edition

MADAM – As auctioneers, we are regularly in receipt of email images of items from hopeful vendors and we are, on most occasions, able to provide a reasonably workable estimate of value.

Modestly estimated at just £100-150 in a recent Carlisle sale, an 18th century manuscript notebook offering ‘An Account of the Improvements in the Gardens & Park at Cannonhall’ proved a major attraction.

Our weekly selection from salerooms.

Works by the French artist Jean Arp (1886-1966) form the main constituent of the 81-lot sale of the Greta Stroeh collection to be offered by Christie’s Paris rooms on Mar 26.

German silver Kiddush cups survived the Second World War in only relatively small numbers but there were some treasured heirlooms, part of Jewish family festivals for generations, that were kept safe throughout the religion’s darkest times.

Thomas Mehigan trades as Thomas Spencer Fine Art and next stands at the Bath Decorative & Antiques Fair.

Our weekly selection from salerooms.

Our weekly selection from salerooms.

Newcomers to the 44-dealer annual Wilton House Antiques Fair include the Vangelli Gallery in London with Asian decorative art, the West Sussex antique dealership Wakelin & Linfield which sells English and Continental furniture and Shine on Design, specialising in Art Deco pieces.

MADAM – I note your recent correspondence regarding ‘firm price’ labels.

Two broadsides describing and illustrating with wood engravings the executions of convicted murderers were sold online at £1600 apiece by Forum.

This damask towel measuring 3ft 5in x 2ft 5in (1m x 75cm) and decorated with wreaths of fleur de lys and a central bouquet of roses will feature in Osenat’s La Royauté à Versailles auction, to be held in Versailles on April 5.

This Ming ink and colour on silk painting of Shakyamuni Buddha, offered for sale by Rob Michiels (27.5% buyer’s premium) in Bruges on February 15, is thought to be part of an imperial order made in the short reign of Emperor Jingtai (1449-57).

A Westerwald salt-glaze jug offered at Reeman Dansie's latest sale in Colchester was worked with stylised tulips and a medallion with the portraits of William of Orange and Queen Mary.

The 19th century Dutch painter Jozef Israëls (1824-1911), a leading member of the Hague School group of landscape painters, was best known for his realistic and sympathetic portrayals of the Dutch peasantry and fisherfolk.

On Friday, February 21, Michael Bloomstein of Brighton was paying the following for bulk scrap against a gold fix of: $1633.70 / €1508.16 / £1264.81

The antique toys sale at Morphy in Denver, Pennsylvania, on Mar 10-11 includes an array of French automata with creations by makers Leopold Lambert, Gustav Vichy and Jean Roullet.

Featuring one historiated initial depicting a priest blessing the marriage of a couple who stand before him, a medieval guide to marital problems and resolutions made £32,000 online at Forum Auctions (25/20/12% buyer’s premium).

Only about three of these c.1907 Llanelly Pottery rose bowls (below) are known to exist, says dealer Robert Pugh who is pricing the one shown here at £700.

Two institutions dominated bidding for the notebooks and correspondence of a significant Regency period female author at the Cotswold Auction Company in Cheltenham last week.