UK

Although premises are closed, online selling can help to create a sale day sense of excitement

The sale of portrait miniatures held online by Chiswick Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) included a watercolour on ivory of the artist William Holman Hunt (1827-1910).

Auction houses across the country are grappling with the practicalities of staging auctions safely as the UK enters its third week of the government-sanctioned shutdown.

Given the government’s strict guidelines on social distancing, what delivery options can art and antiques buyers use during the lockdown period?

There were two in the room when British Bespoke Auctions held a four-and-a half hour sale last week. On the rostrum on April 1, in an office rather than the saleroom (which is closed), was Nicholas Granger. Behind him was Bella, a blue-and-gold macaw who has been by his side for 20 years.

Although often overshadowed by her famous father William, May Morris (1862-1938) was herself an important figure in the British Arts & Crafts movement.

A number of industrial and commercial-focused businesses have operated online-only and timed auctions for some time and have systems in place that allow for very little contact between individuals.

The recent auction held ‘live online’ by Aldridges of Bath included this spectacular hand-woven north Indian long shawl, or dochalla. It came with a colonial provenance.

Dealers and trade bodies have been adapting to the new normal caused by coronavirus. For most this means isolated living and remote transactions. However, in a spirit of energy and invention, traders are finding new ways to promote both their stock and their brands online.

Books, catalogues, ephemera, pictures and other material from the collections of the Shorthorn Society of the United Kingdom & Ireland formed a significant part of a recent Carlisle sale.

Maud O’Reilly (1886-1971), a key figure in Queensland’s Arts & Crafts movement and a student of the LJ Harvey school, showed her pottery at a number of British exhibitions in the mid 1920s.

Among a 200-lot list of vinyl records by a galaxy of rock and pop stars, punk provided the outstanding performance at Cottees’ (18% buyer’s premium) specialist sale at Poole.

Puritan Cotton Mather’s defence of executions is latest work on the subject to surface.

The first 20 lots of the recent football memorabilia sale at Stacey’s in Rayleigh, Essex came from the family of the Edwardian player Benjamin Warren (1879-1917).

An unusual late Victorian silver pocket watch by Herbert Blockley of London sold for an unexpected £2800 at Potteries Auctions (20% buyer’s premium) in Stoke-on- Trent.