Auction Reports

Must-have Christmas presents in the Sixties and Seventies, Sasha dolls have remarkable appeal today.

Second World War technology starred at Tennants’ (20% buyer’s premium) militaria sale at Leyburn.

The inaugural Design at Home sale, put together by Mark Hill for Dawson’s (20% buyer’s premium) in Maidenhead, included a trio of pieces by ‘hot glass’ pioneer Sam Herman (b.1936).

Renowned as he is for promoting – indeed, creating – markets in art, advertising mogul Charles Saatchi appears to have over-estimated the taxidermy market when bidding at the sale of the Will Fisher Collection at Christie’s South Kensington in February 2012.

Clocks from England’s ‘Golden Age’ provided highlights at two early December sales.

Unsigned, but breathing the name of one of the leaders of the Arts & Crafts movement in Scotland, this enamel panel and unmarked silver brooch sold for £5500 at Greenslade Taylor Hunt (19.5% buyer’s premium) in Taunton.

Two pre-Christmas sales, one at Woolley & Wallis (22% buyer’s premium) in Salisbury and one at Mallams (20% buyer’s premium) in Oxford, highlighted the move of studio pottery from esoteric niche into the mainstream market.

Jade remains ever-popular in the Chinese art field, although the market has become selective.

More Channel Islands silver to add to over 250 pieces dispersed as part of the Paint collection at Martel Maides earlier this year came to auction recently.

The season, the spirit in question and the location of the sale put this bottle of Lagavulin whisky, below, into the spotlight.

Which sector of the traditional antiques trade has been on an unbroken, record-busting rise since the early years of the century?

Where scientific instruments are concerned, recent highlights such as Albert Einstein’s telescope or a working example of the Apple 1 computer could have been selected. However, we begin instead with the improved, four-rotor Enigma cipher machine.

Qualifying for the oxymoronic term ‘giant carriage clock’, the 8in (20cm) tall gilt-metal carriage clock shown below had the quality to trigger a bidding battle between specialists at Chilcotts (19.5% buyer’s premium) in Honiton on December 2.

The most desirable of all porcelain plaques produced by KPM in the late 19th century are those that leave little to the imagination. However, evidence of their continued popularity across many different subject matters came in the form of this example below.

Beloved of TV antiques programmes and of bidders knowing the lots are absolutely fresh to market, there are few phrases to stir the blood at an auction as much as ‘from the attic’.

Overall, a Voices of the 20th Century sale held by Bonhams New York (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) on December 6 was rather disappointing, with only 100 of 264 lots sold (and only six of the 55 Russian lots). However, among the more curious entries was the ‘Paradummy’ pictured below.

While English ceramics feature in most provincial sales, November provided four auctions where the market could be looked at overall.

Engraved 18th century glassware opened the sale at Woolley & Wallis (22% buyer’s premium) in Salisbury on October 18.

A full saleroom and a sell-out are not necessarily features you associate with traditional fields such as English drinking glasses but there are always exceptions.

In a category of its own – and bringing one of the highest prices at the Tennants autumn sale – was a brass, tooth-edge dog collar engraved Rt. Honble Lord Byron.