Print Edition

Eye-catching, head-turning and mouth-watering: it was the human form, from ancient statuettes to modern portraits, that caught buyers’ attention at the most recent edition of London Art Week.

Two French corkscrews were the top lots of Henry Aldridge & Son’s auction of the first tranche of a single-owner collection of around 450 examples.

Signed in gold to the 10in (25cm) damascus barrels Manton London, the best-known name among London gunsmiths, a cased pair of 25-bore flintlock duelling pistols led the specialist arms and armour sale held by Antony Cribb (22% buyer’s premium) at Abingdon on July 24.

It has not been a vintage season for armour in the saleroom, but some of the recent highlights from London and Munich are shown here.

This early Meissen teapot and cover was among the stand-out sales at the joint selling exhibition 'A Collectors’ Paradise' held at Brian Haughton Gallery in St James’s.

MADAM – My congratulations to Anthony Bernbaum and to Lewis Baer for their excellent letters: Mr Bernbaum’s account of why he left Online Galleries and Mr Baer advocating the creation of a global trade body for the art and antiques sector (ATG No 2352).

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period July 19-August 1 2018. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

June and July brought a rich crop of auctions in London, around the country and overseas. A few of those sales and stand-out results have already been reported on these and the ATG news pages, but many more hammer highlights were achieved.

A famous royal regiment was remembered at the Peter Francis (20% buyer’s premium) auction in Carmarthen.

A very suitable buyer emerged for an 19th century picture of The Artists Rifles by John Evan Hodgson (1831-95) offered in Exeter.

A sweeping landscape by John Arnesby Brown (1866-1955) made a multi-estimate sum at Henry Adams (20% buyer’s premium), the second time in four months a work by the painter has done so at the Chichester firm.

Bill Clark runs Clark Art, which specialises in LS Lowry and modern British art, in Cheshire.

It took a bid of €60,000 (£53,100) to secure a pair of flintlock pistols of c.1730 from the armoury of the Princes of Lobkowitz at Hermann Historica (25% buyer’s premium) in Munich in May.

Demand for Scottish artist with a ‘distinctive personality’ drives a good auction result in Somerset.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

A round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days, including a bidding battle for a rare gold Titanic rescue medal.

The classic English sporting gun is a sidelock, but for many the ‘round-action’ shotguns perfected by John Dickson of Edinburgh in the 1870s are the most elegant of all.

“I would say in the short term it hasn’t put buyers off but I don’t have a crystal ball so I don’t know what the future will hold.” Auctioneer Henry Meadows’ take on the forthcoming ivory ban will be shared by many a regional auctioneer in the wake of summer sales.

A trio of works in regional auctions which sold under £300, including a watercolour of the River Dart in Devon by Thomas Bush Hardy.

Edged weapons from the East dominated the summer sale at Thomas Del Mar (24% buyer’s premium) in London on June 27 and it was an old collection of Indian dress daggers that produced the highest prices.