Decorative Art

Sotheby’s (25% buyer’s premium) sale of art and antiques from the Regency manor house Spetchley Park in Wychavon, Worcestershire, held in London on December 11, included a range of ‘kunstkammer’ objects amassed by the Berkeley family in the 19th century.

An atypical visitor to a recent sale at Canterbury Auction Galleries (24% buyer’s premium) was a Norwegian silver gilt brudekrone dating from the late 18th or early 19th century.

MADAM – Having read the article ‘Job lots with specific draw’ on page 29 of ATG No 2422, I was a bit put out to read the description of the Clement Heaton-attributed tiles.

International interest at the Kingham & Orme (20% buyer’s premium) sale at Evesham on December 6-7 focused on René Lalique. A single-owner collection of the great French designer’s work attracted multiple phone and internet bidders from the US, the Continent and Russia.

Matthew Barton (25% buyer’s premium) attracted international interest in this early-19th century German gold snuff box at his November 20 London sale.

The first event of the year for Galloway Antiques Fairs is its local event in Harrogate.

In the 130th anniversary year of the birth of Jean Cocteau (1889-1963), a collection of ceramics by the leading figure of the French avant-garde was a sell-out at Bonhams’ Prints and Multiples sale on December 11-12.

This 12½in (31cm) Royal Copenhagen blanc de chine vase offered by Newcastle’s Anderson & Garland (22% buyer’s premium) on December 5 has an underglaze ‘three waves’ mark dating to c.1870-90.

In 1906, three years after he had founded the Wiener Werkstätte with Koloman Moser, the multi-talented Austrian Josef Hoffmann designed a silver casket.

Preview held in imposing stately home helps to boost interest ahead of first sale section.

In preparation for the 25th anniversary of the Staffordshire Figure Association (SFA) in 2020, its 60 members worldwide are, for the first time, receiving a wall calendar.

Although catalogued as Sèvres, a porcelain cup and saucer sold by Keys (20% buyer’s premium) of Aylsham for an unexpected £5500 (estimate £100-200) on November 27 was by the factory’s precursor at Vincennes. The saucer had the date letter A for c.1754 and the cup B for c.1755.

The sale at John Nicholson’s (25% buyer’s premium) in Haslemere on October 24 included a substantial collection of ancient (or ancient style) coloured glassware: more than 60 pieces sold across half a dozen group lots.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

The 11 pieces of early-18th century Régence silver gilt from a dressing service pictured below were billed by Christie’s as “the last remnants of France’s most glorified stylistic and historically important period”.

Two mixed lots of Victorian dust-pressed tiles sold for multi-estimate sums at Mander (24% buyer’s premium inc VAT) in Sudbury on November 30. Key to their appeal were the inclusion of near sets of tiles made by Minton Hollins & Co to designs by Arts & Crafts luminaries.

Cotswolds steel masterworks bring £50,000.