Auction Reports

An early 19th century German Grodnertal doll sold for £2500 (estimate £600-800) in Tennants’ (22% buyers premium) Costume, Accessories and Textiles Sale on May 28.

In May 2019 Spink (20% buyer’s premium) medal specialist Marcus Budgen was entrusted to catalogue the medals of Gunner A Howard, ‘N’ Battery, 5th Brigade, Royal Artillery, one of just four members of the RA present at the defence of Rorke’s Drift in the Zulu War.

Long before Mirandinha, Faustino Asprilla and Nolberto Solano graced the hallowed turf of Newcastle United’s St James’ Park, two brothers paved the way for South American footballers to play professionally in England.

A private medal collection rated by Ipswich saleroom Lockdales (18% buyer’s premium) as “magnificent” was offered on May 20-22.

A selection of Second World War ephemera with a distinctly Polish flavour estimated at £60-100 sold instead for £7600 at a Devon auction.

Flight Lieutenant Maurice ‘Mark’ Mounsdon was one of only four remaining members of Sir Winston Churchill’s ‘The Few’ when he died in 2019 aged 101.

Spotlight on honours sold recently includes courageous lifesavers from civilian backgrounds.

The Our Gang range of Second World War ‘types’ were designed for the Bovey Pottery Company by architect Fenton Wyness (1903-74) and modelled by artist Gwynneth Holt (1909-95). Both were based in Aberdeen in the 1940s.

The sale at jewellery auction house Elmwood’s (25% buyer’s premium) in London on May 19 included a remarkable family archive of antique items.

Simple white Wiener Werkstätte boxes epitomise fine design offered at trio of sales

This late 18th century portrait bust of a gentleman by a sculptor from the circle of Joseph Nollekens (1737-1823) is traditionally thought to depict the prominent British Whig statesman Charles James Fox (1749-1806).

Sworders’ (25% buyer’s premium) Design sale on May 18 included a record for a wall-hanging by the weaver Peter Collingwood (1922-2008).

For 19th century sahibs in tiger country and bwanas dealing with charging lions, howdah pistols like the one offered at West Sussex gun specialist Gavin Gardiner (25% buyer’s premium) were the preferred sidearm.

Estimated at £120-150, this modest 7in (17cm) high Chinese export silver golfing trophy sold for £5500 at Bourne End Auction Rooms (17.5% buyer’s premium).

Pitched at a modest £300-500, a harlequin set of eight Charles II joined oak back stools was one of a number of successes among the furniture offered at Tennants’ (22% buyer’s premium) Leyburn sale.

Chairs and sofas by Howard & Sons are a pricey niche market these days, largely immune to the varying fortunes of the wider market for Victorian and Edwardian furniture.

Chinese emperors certainly got the message when it came to artistic advances

This original concert poster advertises the second of two now legendary punk rock concerts in Manchester in the summer of 1976.

This large iron lock and key is inscribed Presented to WP Brookes Esq by a Member of the Wenlock Olympian Class May 18th 1869.

This rare doucai porcelain vase, with Qianlong marks and probably of period, provided a classic tale of discovery in the saga of the Chinese boom.