Features

Among the hundreds of new products launched at the Exposition Universelle in 1900 was the so-called eggshell porcelain, produced by the Rozenburg Royal Delftware Factory in the Hague.

Gordon Mitchell Forsyth (1879-1952) is best known as a ceramicist - specifically for his work as art director at the Pilkington’s Lancastrian factory from 1903-14 and his subsequent teaching career as superintendent of art instruction in Stoke-on-Trent.

Moorcroft pottery collection offered in Essex saleroom had a great focus on signed wares of the initial Macintyre era when the designer was at his prime

Small-scale Mouseman carvings were typically made in Kilburn for promotional purposes – attracting custom at the Yorkshire Show or similar trade events. Rarities continue to bring muscular sums in the salerooms.

With its exaggerated, curved armrests, ample cushioning and cantilevered frame, the H269 bentwood chair is perhaps the best known of all Czech industrial furniture designs.

Not only was this Robert Wallace Martin (1843-1923) a stoneware ‘face’ jug deemed an excellent example of its type, but it was sold with a hand-written letter to David Oxen Esq, the original buyer of the jug in 1914.

In 1897 Charles Francis Annesley Voysey agreed a contract with Alexander Morton and Co to provide designs for a minimum of 10 textile designs each year for five years.

A selection of upcoming lots focusing on stand-out items from two key design movements

Designed by George Tinworth, c.1885, this Doulton Lambeth spill vase commemorates the first transatlantic phone call between the UK and the US.

Relatively little is known about the German-born artist and designer Elsa Tennhardt (1899-1980).

A recent sale at Claydon Auctioneers (21.5% buyer’s premium) in Buckinghamshire included a suite of aluminium bedroom furniture by the HG Hawker Engineering Company.

The Swinton Estate, which spans approximately 20,000 acres of North Yorkshire, has been in the Cunliffe-Lister family since the 1880s.

Pulling out a suitcase from under a bed during a probate valuation, Dawsons’ valuer could scarcely have guessed what they would find hidden inside.

Of numismatic interest in the Swinton sale were two George VI silver seal matrices made for the County Palatine and the Duchy of Lancaster.

This medieval (probably 14th century) small bronze cauldron or posnet is a recent detecting find, dug late last year in a field in Norfolk.

Much of the market for ‘country house’ antiques is now in the hands of UK’s regional auctioneers. Here we review two recent bellwether sales.

In October Christie’s conducts a timed online sales series titled Collections.

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.

Exhibited in New Bond Street over the summer, Bonhams’ auction titled The Greatest Show: The Fairground World of Ross Hutchinson was held over two days earlier this month: 150 lots at a live auction on September 10, with a further 150 through a timed online sale concluding the following day.

Such is the size of the ‘museum of collectables’ formed by the British toy designer Patrick Rylands, Hansons (26.5% buyer’s premium) in Derbyshire is selling the array in five separate auctions.