Auction Reports

This 1949-51 Massey Ferguson demonstration model by Mills Models of Sheffield comprises Ferguson TE-20 tractor with clockwork mechanism, two different ploughs, rubber wheels and Ferguson badge to front of the grill.

Nine years after taking a premium-inclusive £1375 as part of the The Robert White Collection sale at Bonhams, this Pastilles Valda shop display sales automaton came back to the same auction house in London.

Tether car racing, which began in 1930s California, sounds a strange concept to modern ears but is in fact a hobby still going strong worldwide*.

Some of the earliest dolls’ houses are also referred to as baby houses, although they were more like detailed miniature houses and it is said that the aim was not play but to reflect riches.

Newbury auction house Dreweatts (27% buyer’s premium) held a sale last month titled Syrie Maugham: A Family Collection, offering items from the interior designer and her descendants.

The renewed fashion for ancient bronzes during the Qing period reflected a confluence of scholarly interest, artistic expression and political strategy.

Rare stalking owl catches the eye in Lewes as local vendor sells Lalique car mascots and advertising signs

This late 19th century French gilt bronze and griotte rouge marble tripod table-stand in the Japonisme style sold for £15,000 (estimate £4000-6000) at Hansons (26.5% buyer’s premium) in Richmond, south-west London.

Polar bears have inspired multiple models by the Bing & Grondahl and Royal Copenhagen factories.

Bidders given a first slice of Britain’s ‘biggest collection of breadboards’ from museum in family home

Woolley & Wallis (27% buyer’s premium) considered the Elizabethan bed offered on October 1 to be to ‘by far the most original to be offered at auction in recent years’.

Cabinet was among Chinese exports headed for Europe shipped through the Dutch trading port in Java

Seven international phone bidders competed a blue and white porcelain vase to nearly 1000 times its high estimate at Hansons (25.5% buyer’s premium) in Etwall, Derbyshire on October 9.

A Vincennes soft paste porcelain bleu céleste pierced basket from the first Louis XV service sold for £25,000 at Chiswick Auctions (26% buyer’s premium) on October 13.

Engraving indicates timepiece had been taken during the 1815 battle and presented to a lieutenant

By the 15th century the mechanical clock age had dawned but time had not entirely been called yet on the sundial.

The opportunity to obtain a ‘Kew A Certificate’ did not just attract local British makers but drew in Rolex as well.

City and United player once mired in a bribery scandal but who played until 49 is today a major draw at auction

This early original carte de visite-sized photograph depicting 11 members of the Australian cricket touring party to England 1884 was a stand-out result from an auction offering 500 items from one of the trade’s stalwart books dealers.

A Stirling Moss (1929- 2020) race suit sold at a top-estimate £8000 came with an intriguing provenance.