Duke's

A tankard said to be made from the hide of Oliver Cromwell’s warhorse was the toast of an auction in Dorchester.

A Roman floor panel sold at auction in 2018 and then to an international buyer will be reunited with two other fragments from the same mosaic after a successful fundraising appeal to keep it in the UK.

The unusual Chinese porcelain model (pictured below) forms the shape of a lingzhi stem vividly enamelled with a blend of green, blue and pink glazes. It measures 9in (23cm) high and carries a Qianlong (1736-95) mark.

It is thought that the earliest Chinese porcelain monteith appeared c.1715, coinciding with the establishment of the East India Company’s factory in Canton.

Two Scottish coastal pictures attracted multiple bidders at Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) latest Art & Design sale.

Motor cars became more affordable and reliable particularly in the 1920s-30s, making day trips increasingly popular.

Pictured here are two of four photographs by Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-79) sold via thesaleroom.com for £8000 by Duke’s (22% buyer’s premium) of Dorchester.

Three modestly valued works selling at regional sales including a pencil and watercolour by Russian artist Vladimir Polunin.

The bohemian lives of the Bloomsbury Group of artists have long been a source of fascination for the British public.

The collection of Rozenburg pottery and porcelain belonging to the late children’s television presenter John Noakes (1934-2017) was sold at a recent auction in Dorchester.

Drawings by two later followers of the Pre-Raphaelites drew competition at separate regional salerooms.

Falling short of ambitious hopes but leading the day at Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) first sale of 2020 was a fine English Golden Age longcase clock.

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.

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 old-fashioned country house sale hardly ever fails to cause excitement. The on-the-premises sale of contents from Athelhampton House, a Tudor manor house in Puddletown, Dorset, was no exception.

‘Highly unusual’ is how the Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) cataloguer described a Second World War medal group ahead of its sale in Dorchester on August 22 for £420, just over top estimate.

Last week’s on-the-premises sale at Athelhampton House in Dorset was a near sell-out with a hammer price of close to £1.2m.

Catalogued as ‘witch’ mirrors, this c.1970 pair certainly charmed bidders at Dorchester auction house Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium). The key was the signature Line Vautrin, ROI for the Parisienne designer and decorative artist Line Vautrin (1913-97).