Features

Pouring wine at the table from a standardised machine-made bottle is a relatively new custom. For centuries before the Victorian era, wine was typically bought and stored in the barrel and decanted into bottles or jugs only before use at the table.

In the wake of record auction prices – the first £1m bottle of whisky and a $500,000 bottle of wine – four auction specialists discuss the lively market for fine and rare wines and whisky. A potted history of wine-related antiques follows. First up: Richard Brierley of Forum Auctions and Sam Hellyer of Chiswick Auctions on the wine market.

A month before the emergence of three Compass factory figures in Lewes, the eighth and ninth recorded pieces by America’s earliest-known porcelain maker were offered for sale in Salisbury.

A massive 3ft (92cm) high majolica urn – a riot of grotesque masks, mythical figures and other motifs drawn from Renaissance sources – combining the talents of two key figures in the history of the Minton factory was included in Fonsie Mealy’s (20% buyer’s premium) sale on March 5.

The ceramics sale at Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury on April 30 includes two maiolica apothecary jars and covers from the celebrated Fortuna series – an ambitious suite of pharmacy jars and jugs made in the third quarter of the 16th century.

The March Fine Sale at Keys in Aylsham, the first since a management buyout, includes both a group of Lowestoft rarities and pieces by other factories.

If the 1970s and 80s are remembered as a heyday of English porcelain collecting it is because of enthusiasts such as Dr Dennis G Rice.

This 1750s Vincennes porcelain bottle cooler is part of a collection of around 60 lots of French, (mainly Sèvres, Vincennes and Mennecy) porcelain from the estate of the film and television executive John F Ball to be sold by Butterscotch Auctions, in Bedford, New York, on March 30-31.

This pair of plates, one of them extensively damaged and riveted, proved much more popular than predicted in a sale held in Carmarthen by Peter Francis (20% buyer’s premium) last month.

Designer and decorator Serge Royaux 1924-2016, whose collection of paintings, drawings, furniture and decorative items is being sold by Christie’s Paris rooms on April 17, liked to entertain and to arrange the decor of his table settings to suit individual guests.

Rare examples of early English porcelain are still capable of remarkable sums.

Last November, Lempertz in Cologne held a successful sale of 19th century porcelain from the so-called Twinight Collection, amassed from 1994 by the New York businessman Richard Baron Cohen.

On April 13 Skinner in Boston is holding one of its periodic sales of European furniture, silver and ceramics. Wedgwood is almost always a feature of these auctions and the latest is no exception.

A Cardiff estate has provided a highly useful consignment to Welsh saleroom Rogers Jones (18% buyer’s premium inc VAT) with around 45 modern British paintings in all.

A selection of five pieces of Clarice Cliff offered at different price levels at Woolley & Wallis on March 20 .

An impressive collection of 20th century British pictures will be offered at Cheffins in Cambridge on March 21 after Hertfordshire County Council took the decision to offload them.

In the latest of our occasional series of collector interviews, we talk to Ian Harvey, 74, a retired chartered accountant who has been collecting all his adult life.

Edward Seago (1910-74), perhaps the best-known 20th century artist who lived and worked almost exclusively in Norfolk, captured the atmosphere of his beloved East Anglia with sweeping compositions and a delicate palette.

A wave of fresh interest in female artists is sweeping the UK, forcing museums and galleries to rethink their displays and purchasing policies – and driving demand at dealerships and auction houses in the process.

Familiar striking shapes and bright colours retain a strong following despite a fall in demand from the 1980s-90s heyday.