Front Page and News

The first Olympic medals won by a black British athlete sold at Hansons last week for £8000 (plus premium), writes Laura Chesters.

The Brontë Parsonage Museum, the Brontës’ former family home, has secured an 1830 autograph miniature manuscript by a 14-year-old Charlotte Brontë (1816-55) that was auctioned at Aguttes in Paris.

A Qianlong teapot which made £800,000 in Dorchester provided the stellar result among some exceptional Asian art lots offered for sale in the UK regions and Ireland last week.

Artemisia Gentileschi’s painting 'Lucretia', which was in a private collection for more than 40 years, has made a new record for the artist at an auction in Paris.

Dealers and collectors have one final chance to overturn the Ivory Act 2018, after a judge granted them leave to appeal a High Court ruling upholding the new law.

A good-quality violin linked to the German maker Jacobus Stainer (1619-83) led a group of previously overlooked musical instruments in a Towcester auction.

Thirty pieces of antiquarian jewellery discovered next to a joint of meat in an old freezer were sold for £68,000 (plus 24% buyer's premum) at Kidson-Trigg near Highworth, Swindon.

Duke’s latest Asian art sale had been headlined by items from a local resident and well-known auctioneer, academic and collector, Anthony du Boulay. The 249 lots from early classic wares to Cantonese enamels generated plenty of saleroom energy and a total of around £800,000.

The practice of placing a metal mark on a building to indicate insurance against a fire started in earnest after the Great Fire of London (1666). Each insurance company had its own fire service and distinctive logo.

The Little collection of early English silver is coming to Christie’s London on December 3. The auction comprises 26 domestic vessels from the Tudor and early Stuart periods that survived the tumult of the Civil War period. Some pieces are considered the last of their type in private hands.

A High Court judge has turned down an attempt by a group of dealers and collectors of antique ivory to stop the Ivory Act 2018 coming into force.

Market-fresh examples of Qing imperial splendour dominated a week of auctions timed to coincide with this year’s Asian Art in London event.

Last week’s gala party for Asian Art in London, held at Bonhams on November 5, was also the occasion to announce the winners of the event’s two art awards.

A Cecil Beaton sketch of Christian Dior working in his studio in Paris sold for £5200 (estimate £500-700) as part of the estate of society dress designer Ian Thomas (1929-93).

The whistle that blew after just a minute of play to signal the first penalty kick ever awarded in a World Cup Final has sold for £4200 at a London auction.