Features

Property from the collection of Mrs Henry Ford II is being offered by more than one auction house this year. Christie’s has sales in New York on March 30 and London on April 15, and Doyle (26/21/15% buyer’s premium) held a single-owner selection in its New York rooms on January 25.

An abstract painting by Aubrey Williams (1926-90) offered at Grand Auctions (20% buyer’s premium) in Folkestone at the end of last year set another auction high for the Guyanese artist.

As the pandemic continues to upend the art market calendar, two heavyweights of the Contemporary art and design fair scene are going digital.

On March 30 Christie’s France is offering a selection of around 70 Modern and Post-war works from an unnamed Parisian collector that have been assembled over four decades.

Back in 2004-6, a boom occurred in the prices for Jack Vettriano (b.1951) and a host of works made six-figure sums at auction. These included his most famous work 'The Singing Butler', which sold for a staggering £660,000 at Sotheby’s in April 2004, still a Vettriano auction record.

Keys’ forthcoming Modern Art and 20th Century Design Sale on February 24 includes a painting by Iraqi artist Faraj Abou (1921-84).

Just before England entered a third lockdown, the John Martin Gallery squeezed in a solo show of artist Andrew Gifford’s (b.1970) work at new art hub Cromwell Place in London.

Four online Post-War & Contemporary art exhibitions organised by dealers.

This coin, from the period known as ‘The Anarchy’, was discovered by a metal detectorist in a Yorkshire field in March.

In the absence of face-to-face contact, 2020 was a difficult year for the numismatics market as a whole... but the auction business found a way to thrive.

A record for a British token was set at Dix Noonan Webb on May 26 when this copper coin – the only specimen known in commerce – took £7000 (estimate £400-500).

Showing that not all the best UK numismatic action takes place in London, the first known gold coin of Caratacus – unearthed by a metal detectorist a year earlier in a Berkshire field – sold at auction for a record £71,000 an auction in Norwich.

Roma Numismatics set a new record for a classical coin when a Brutus Eid Mar-type gold aureus, struck shortly after the murder of Julius Caesar, took £2.7m in October.

The numismatic department of TimeLine is a small but important part of the auction house’s activities in the related disciplines of antiquities and medieval works of art.

The 1826 £5 piece was the highest denomination in the coinage of the George IV and was not issued for general circulation. The epitome of Regency design, the reverse features the royal shield while the obverse designed by William Wyon features the bare head portrait.

Dix Noonan Webb’s highest-priced lot of 2020 was this Crimean War Naval Brigade Victoria Cross group of four sold for £240,000 on October 15. The estimate was £120,000-160,000.

This William and Mary Five Guineas piece from 1693 features conjoined busts of joint monarchs.

Among the highlights of the year at Spink was a group of 17 medals awarded to Air Vice-Marshal Sir Matthew Brown ‘Bunty’ Frew (1895-1974).

After striking a few coins in both gold and silver which were still closely related to Byzantine and Sasanian prototypes, ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan ibn al-Hakam, the fifth Umayyad caliph, ruling from 685-705AD (65-86H), made a clean break with the pre-Islamic past and introduced a completely new gold coinage in 77H.

Starting his collection with a 1568 sixpence purchased in Swanage in 1957, marine insurance broker Christopher Comber (1944-2019) formed a remarkable collection of Elizabeth I coins.