Print Edition

The recent court case concerning Simon De Pury’s claim against Swiss trustees for a commission of $10m on the sale of a $210m Gauguin (ATG No 2326) has raised a few eyebrows.

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period February 22-28, 2018. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

A round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days, including auction houses forced to rescheduled their sales after heavy snow.

The Buckinghamshire countryside, with its rolling hills, fields, hedgerows and trees, inspired much of the art of John Nash (1893-1977), the younger and less well-known brother of Paul Nash.

Sold for $28,000 (£20,820) by Christie’s New York (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) on December 5 was this original drawing by Ralph Steadman for the 1971 first appearance of Hunter Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Holker Hall, the privately owned country house in Cumbria, hosts its first fair in nearly 25 years this month.

“We were particularly encouraged by the performance of the furniture with many pieces selling to trade and private buyers for ‘old school’ prices.”

The 20th century portraitist Meredith Frampton (1894-1984) achieved remarkable success in a relatively short career.

An album of Indian photographs sold for £32,000 in Edinburgh provided ATG’s Pick of the Week in the previous issue (No 2331), but there was much more on offer in that 550-lot Scottish sale.

Running to some 300pp and described by the auctioneers as “a most enchanting album, redolent of Jane Austen and her world”, a scrapbook compilation of paper cut-outs, views and figural studies, sold for £1550 in a general sale held in Sussex.

A Parisian Book of Hours dating to c.1440-50 was among illuminated or decorated manuscripts sold during in the closing weeks of 2017.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

MADAM – As a jewellery consultant I thought my first letter to the ATG would be about ivory. But No.

Commonly known as a What The Butler Saw machine, a late 19th-early 20th century Mutoscope was the most alluring of a consignment of a collection of amusement arcade machines offered at Canterbury Auction Galleries (20% buyer’s premium).

As well as the ‘big three’, a clutch of other US salerooms will be holding specialist Asian art sales in mid March.

MADAM – I think the increased interest and associated rise in value of vintage and collectable watches means auction houses really need to up their game both in terms of what they’re selling and how they are describing lots.

MADAM – Re: the article by Laura Chesters concerning the future of the Silver Vaults (ATG No 2330). Just to correct a small point – that the Chancery Lane Safe Deposit was opened by the Lord Mayor in May 1885 and not in 1876.

Regional auction houses accounted for over a quarter of the UK auction market in 2017.

German-made painted wood Noah’s arks, appealing to folk art and toy collectors alike, don’t get much better than the mid- 19th century example sold at Bonhams Knightsbridge.

Furnishings that were once part of the family home of Gertrude Bell, one of the most fascinating figures of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, are coming up at auction at Tennants in North Yorkshire on March 17.