Latest News Articles by Terence Ryle
Cornish B&B consignment checks in to Devon auction
26 March 2018Considering retiring and selling up, the owner of a Cornish B&B owner consigned the George III, japanned chest on stand, below, to Honiton saleroom Chilcotts (19.5% buyer’s premium) to test the market.
Sheep dip sign makes it through the snowdrifts
26 March 2018Deep snowdrifts accompanied the March 2 sale at Chippenham Auctions (20% buyer’s premium) in Wiltshire.
Hammer highlights: Furniture stars at regional sales
12 March 2018On a lesser scale than the exceptional £35,000 George II chairs at Holloway’s sale, but standing out from the general run of brown furniture, were other encouraging results across the country in February.
Netsuke fans look further afield
12 March 2018With Bonhams the only one of the ‘big three’ in this market, other salerooms carve out a role...
A pearler in west London
12 March 2018The Asian art sale at Chiswick confirmed that many of the better pieces of Chinese art are now well beyond the budget of the average western collector.
Sweet okimono success in Shropshire
12 March 2018Widely exported during the Meiji period to a Western market newly awake to the skills of Japanese craftsmen, okimono now often appear at provincial salerooms.
Grinning bid brings in Buddha
12 March 2018A small soapstone figure of a grinning, reclining Buddha stole the show at Thomas Watson (24% buyer’s premium) of Darlington when it smashed its estimate of £80-120 to sell for £16,500.
Cashing in on flashy cases
12 March 2018Flash from the past at the Diss rooms of TW Gaze (18% buyer’s premium).
Saleroom toasts the god Bacchus
12 March 2018A likely candidate as highlight of the year for Exeter auction house Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood (21% buyer’s premium) will be the £305,000 Hans Coper vase (ATG last week, No 2332).
Liddell and Lord Lucan lots impress at auction
12 March 2018Dwarfed as they were by the £440,000 oil of St John the Evangelist (see ATG last week, No 2332), a number of other lots helped to make Holloway’s (20% buyer’s premium) first major sale of the year in Banbury on February 27 an event to remember.
French furniture keeps the market fresh
05 March 2018With most English furniture still underperforming at auction, it is French 19th century cabinetmaking that is providing the soundest base of furniture sales in England.
Encouraging prices of ‘old-school’ furniture variety
05 March 2018“We were particularly encouraged by the performance of the furniture with many pieces selling to trade and private buyers for ‘old school’ prices.”
Take a peep at arcade machines sold at auction
05 March 2018Commonly known as a What The Butler Saw machine, a late 19th-early 20th century Mutoscope was the most alluring of a consignment of a collection of amusement arcade machines offered at Canterbury Auction Galleries (20% buyer’s premium).
Carpenter’s tool store is chest the thing for unusual purchases
05 March 2018Outselling much of the sort of furniture its owner could have worked on, an 18th century carpenter’s oak tool chest on stand was among the pleasant surprises for vendors at the opening sale of the year at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood (21% buyer’s premium).
Furniture boosts bonnie start to Scottish sales
26 February 2018The generally encouraging start to the year enjoyed by English auctioneers extends to Scotland where Lyon & Turnbull (25% buyer’s premium) enjoyed a buoyant season-opener.
Rug roughs it out to sell at £19,500
26 February 2018Cautiously catalogued as mid-19th century and suffering some damage, a large suzani attracted international interest at the Andrew Smith & Son (19% buyer’s premium) Winchester sale.
Escritoire with a touch of ooh-la-la to excite bidders
26 February 2018Pretty, petite and French – a seductive combination which won admirers of this kingwood and floral marquetry escritoire at Mallams’ (20% buyer’s premium) Oxford rooms.
Buyers hooked by classic salmon lures
26 February 2018Skilfully designed to catch salmon, fishing flies and lures hooked enthusiasts at Shropshire sporting specialist Mullock’s (20% buyer’s premium) fishing sale which included the work of two great names in the angling lexicon.
Coffee cup not a has-bean at sale
26 February 2018Made in Switzerland for the Turkish market, in the late 19th century this zarf (coffee cup), below, had endured some rough treatment over the years before appearing at the Shropshire rooms of Trevanion & Dean (19% buyer’s premium).
Furniture and clocks flourish in North Yorkshire
19 February 2018Specialists who relaunched North Yorkshire auction house generate old-school optimism.