Decorative Art

Pictured here are three highlight lots from recent sales held by Whittons (20% buyer’s premium) in Honiton, Devon.

A French three-colour gold snuff box was a highlight of the silver and vertu section of Lawrences (25% buyer’s premium) of Crewkerne’s recent winter sale.

Another auction where silver and objects of vertu were prominent was the fine art and antiques sale staged by Elstob (25% buyer’s premium).

Silverware was a major component of Bonhams’ (28/27/21/14.5% buyer’s premium) Knightsbridge auction titled The Connoisseur’s Library on February 13-14.

Among the technically most complex pieces ever created in the porcelain manufacture in Meissen were the so-called 'Schneeballen-Vasen' (snowball vases).

A faience dinner service that belonged to the famous French novelist George Sand sold for €7000 (£5980) at the Rouillac (24% buyer’s premium inc tax) auction on February 10.

The Royal Doulton figure Guy Fawkes designed by Charles Noke was issued as HN98 from 1918.

Portrait of monarch impresses as château of the Comtes de Marcellus delivers treasures to auction

Lalique, the epitome of inter-war glamour, took centre stage at the Chiswick Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) Design sale.

The most eagerly contested lot at the Echoes Antiques & Auction Gallery (23% buyer’s premium) sale on January 23 was a Japanese cloisonné miniature teapot bearing the mark of the great Namikama Yasuyuki.

The murder of William Weare in the Hertfordshire village of Radlett in 1823 has been called the first trial by newspaper. It was also the first subject in the ‘crime and punishment’ series of earthenwares that proved curiously popular in the Victorian era.

A temporary export block has been placed on Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Polar Medal in the hope a buyer in the UK can pay £1.7m.

Extensive array offered by Lyon & Turnbull concentrates on the first Scottish period of production

A Venetian Old Master painting of St Roch attributed to the circle of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696- 1770) awoke from the slumber of a $600-900 estimate to hammer for $75,000 (£59,000).

A small 8in cast bronze relief or architectural element c.1900 designed by Art Nouveau and Art Deco master René Lalique was offered in Florida.

The first part of a sale offering the contents of a house on Belgrave Square went under the hammer at Bellmans (25% buyer’s premium).

An 18th century Native American trade axe pipe linked to the great Shawnee chief and warrior Tecumseh (1768-1813) was the runaway performer when the collection of Ohio dealer and entrepreneur Bruce Knight was dispersed in the first days of the New Year.

A staple at American barber shops of the 19th and early 20th centuries was the occupational shaving mug.

The Durrington Collection of Glass, a select 60-lot auction which Bonhams (28/27/21/14.4% buyer’s premium) offered for sale last year, featured some of the best examples of 18th century British glassmaking across a number of collectable categories.