Print Edition

Traders give positive feedback for an event that consistently gets the summer season off to a good start

“A Holy Grail moment for collectors worldwide” was the promise from Merseyside auction house Omega (29/35% buyer’s premium inc VAT) when a scarce picture sleeve came for sale.

This 2ft 6in (75cm) high five-light candelabrum hallmarked for Sheffield 1844 and the firm Creswick & Co (Thomas, James and Nathaniel Creswick) is both an impressive example of early Victorian table silver and a memento of the heroic era of polar exploration.

“This has been the biggest single cataloguing job of my career - an extraordinary experience,” said John Silke, vinyl specialist of Surrey saleroom Ewbank’s (25% buyer’s premium).

Spoons are among the very few pieces of English silver surviving from the period of Wars of the Roses.

As part of a Fine Art auction in Surrey on June 25, Catherine Southon is selling a collection of British art exhibition posters from the estate of Professor Zacron (Robert Drew), the maverick artist best known for the album cover of Led Zeppelin III.

A painting by Henry Singleton (1766-1839) depicting the surrender of Tipu Sultan’s two sons to Major General David Baird (1757-1829) made five times its estimate at Bonhams. The 4ft 1in x 3ft 3in (1.25m x 99cm) oil on canvas came to auction for the first time from one of Baird’s descendants.

The huge V&A East Storehouse opened on May 31 offering the chance to view and handle its objects for the first time.

A 1930s linocut by the British- Canadian Grosvenor School artist Sybil Andrews has been recovered after being stolen more than 30 years ago.

A fine English table clock by Huguenot maker Stephen Rimbault (1711-86) generated plenty of competition at auction in the Netherlands.

An important Cubist painting by Mainie Jellett (1897-1944) set a major auction record for the Irish artist at Whyte’s.

Former chief executive of LAPADA Freya Simms is joining businessman Toby Lorford to help grow his Gloucestershire based antiques and interiors firm.

A sale of historic material relating to Abraham Lincoln posted an auction record for any artefact related to the US president when it offered the bloodstained white leather gloves carried by him on the night of his assassination.

The sale of a private collection of arms and armour at C&T Auctions in Kent, on May 13 included a brass figure of a cavalryman from a small but well-known group of Indian toy soldiers.