Auction Reports

Perhaps the rarest of all Beswick’s output is the pit pony figure Spirit of Whitfield.

Early to spot the rise of interest in taxidermy, Tennants’ (18.5% buyer’s premium) latest Natural History sale on September 20 was led by a top-quality diorama with a back story adding to its appeal.

A selection of good online illustrations plus a brief noncommittal description can be the regional auctioneer’s safest route when offering Chinese works of art. It proved successful when a porcelain bowl was consigned to the September 7 sale Greenslade Taylor & Hunt (19% buyer’s premium) held at Taunton.

“Many think that the fashion for older mahogany furniture has died a death. However, the prices achieved at this sale go to show that these items are still incredibly desirable.”

Cameras, scientific and medical instruments specialist Flints (20% buyer’s premium) held its inaugural sale on September 21.

An Irish family portrait attributed to Francis Wheatley (1747-1801) led the picture section at Clevedon Salerooms (20% buyer’s premium) on September 14 in Bristol.

A heavily carved and silvered wood ‘console table’, offered with an estimate of £1500-2500 at Lacy Scott & Knight’s (20% buyer’s premium) September 9 sale came with a somewhat exotic story.

The second Royal Doulton figure to buck the generally lukewarm market within a fortnight, a 'Double Jester' figure designed by Charles Noke, was the star of a 1000-lot collectables sale at John Nicholson’s (24% buyer’s premium) at Haslemere on September 7.

To make any money these days, ladies’ gold pendant watches do need an extra selling point – such as the Cartier name and plenty of Art Deco style.

Auctioneer hails return to form for Swansea and Nantgarw porcelain at Cardiff themed sale...

Best of 193 lots of film posters which made up a specialist sale at Burstow Hewett (15% buyer’s premium) at Battle was this variation for the classic movie The Maltese Falcon.

The field encompassed by ‘Design’ sales is being diligently tilled by many UK auctioneers aware of the potential of a market appealing to younger buyers wary of traditional antiques.

Enhancing a growing reputation at Edinburgh auction house Thomson Roddick (17.5% buyer’s premium) for optical instruments, a recent sale included 18 lots of binoculars and the like.

Two aspects of soldiering – a touch of glamour and life at the deadly sharp end – were illustrated in two lots at a Tennants (18.5% buyer’s premium) antiques and militaria sale at Leyburn.

Catalogued as early English, this slipware dish above had all the qualities of the combed decoration earthenware baking, or loaf, dishes produced in the late 18th to early 19th century and took the top price at Mitchells (20% buyers premium) of Cockermouth.

Found by a dog walker in a roadside skip, this remarkably intact Victorian majolica teapot found the ideal bidder at Brighton General Auctions (15% buyer’s premium).

Although much less fashionable than they were, a set of silver candlesticks can nonetheless prove solid sellers as did these four, above, at Mallams’ (20% buyer’s premium) sale in Oxford on August 23.

The slow, but observable, return of competition for fine Japanese works of art was evident at Hannam’s (20% buyer’s premium) of Selborne on August 23 in the form of this large Meiji ivory scholar’s table screen, below.

Topping the 175 toys at David Lay’s (15% buyer’s premium) sale at Penzance on August 22, was this 1930s clockwork tinplate Krazy Kar marked By Permission Walt Disney – Mickey Mouse Ltd to the rear and Made in England to the left-hand side.

Called shuttles, but a world away from Blake’s dark satanic mills, the two sewing tools illustrated here were hand tools used by elegant ladies doing polite tatting work. The use of luxury materials was designed to reflect their status.