Features

Greg Penn, 37, better known on Instagram as Man with a Hammer, is carrying out a major renovation of a 30-room former naval residence in Plymouth, doing the vast majority of the work himself and buying furniture online.

Long periods of life at home because of Covid restrictions for both lifestyle and work reasons have encouraged a trend for younger buyers in particular to target second-hand items from auction houses and dealers

Just how green is it to buy furniture second hand these days? A new study conducted by Small World Consulting on behalf of ATG parent company Auction Technology Group set out to provide the answer.

And why, when it comes to the secondary market for Ercol furniture, blonde is certainly more fun

Determining when in the past seven decades a genuine Eames classic was made is not an exact science

ATG asked dealers who work in the interiors trade about their recent experience. They reported burgeoning business despite – or, indeed, because of – lockdowns over the past two years.

Consumer journalist and broadcaster Harry Wallop, 47, and his wife decorated their Art Deco holiday home Endymion House in Cumbria with 1930s pieces befitting the property’s ‘Poirot glamour’.

You can always find stylish pieces at 20th century design sales held by Italian auction houses. Here are some highlights from recent sales at Wannenes in Genoa on December 15-16 and Colasanti in Rome on October 7-8.

Nine previews of items on offer from dealers

This Bank of England £1000 note dated October 15, 1935, was issued under chief cashier Kenneth Oswald Peppiatt (1934-49).

Very much the highest price in the sale of American Works of Art held by Skinner (25/20/12 % buyer’s premium) in Marlborough, Massachusetts, on January 28 was this bronze figure of Abraham Lincoln.

The sales figures and market share of the top London auction houses in 2021

The most cherished coin from the reign of Victoria is the 1839 gold £5 piece by William Wyon.

A three-quarters-length bust of a bare-chested Antinous, the favourite of Hadrian, appears on this medallic coin minted in Mantinea, Arcadia, c.134AD.

Swann Galleries is holding a sale of Books and Autographs in New York on February 17.

Price increases and a good supply fired the London coins and medals market to record levels in 2021

The 150th Victoria Cross ever awarded sold for £180,000 at London auction house Spink on July 29.

The sale at Sovereign Rarities on September 21 included this Charles I (1625-49), silver pattern unite (20 shillings) dated 1630.

The fourth and final part of the North Yorkshire Moors collection of coins and medals sold by Dix Noonan Webb included some exceptional examples from the Interregnum.

US auction house Skinner has appointed Leah Kingman as director of the 20th century design department.