Decorative Art

It was only a matter of time before a treasure from the hot new British ceramics market emerged out of nowhere and onto the rostrum in the long tradition of boom areas.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

Bought in a French flea market as a set, seven 19th century salt-glazed fish-shaped spirit flasks were entered into Hannam’s (23% buyer’s premium) sale at Selborne as separate items, each estimated at £80-120.

This Bow porcelain figure of Polyhymnia, the Greek mythological muse of sacred poetry, hymn, dance and eloquence, is among the pieces on offer at this summer’s 'Ceramics Mayfair'.

MADAM – I note the report on the sale of a porcelain plaque decorated with a portrait of the Empress Josephine on page 13 of ATG No 2343.

ATG's selection of ceramics offered in London this summer.

In the heart of London’s legal district, two storeys underground, lies the world’s biggest concentration of antique silver offered by the world’s most extensive concentration of antique silver dealers. Welcome to The London Silver Vaults.

The London Silver Vaults unites dozens of independent firms – many long-standing family businesses – with a shared passion for the gleam of polished white metal. In this advertising feature, we meet some of the faces behind those iron doors.

Catalogued simply as ‘a pair of English soft-paste porcelain models of parrots’, these rare 18th century figures by Bow sold at Thomas Watson in Darlington, County Durham, for £16,000 (plus 24% buyer’s premium) on May 15.

Not, perhaps, the face modern eyes would immediately think of captivating an emperor, but this porcelain plaque portrait of Napoleon’s first wife, Josephine, was one of a number of major attractions at Canterbury Auction Galleries’ (24% buyer’s premium) Spring Sale.

Around 50 lots of French porcelain from the collection formed by Nadia Ortiz Patino of the famous collecting family are to be offered in a June 6 sale at Drouot, to be held by Thierry de Maigret under the expertise of Hervé de la Verrie.

The epic white-glove sale of the David and Peggy Rockefeller collection at Christie’s New York has established a new high for a single-owner auction.

Another spring sale, another impressive total. But perhaps what distinguished the silver sale held at Woolley & Wallis (25% buyer’s premium) was that the £750,000 total was mainly built up by affordable collectors’ items.

This pair of ormolu candlesticks by Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751-1843) will feature in the May 24 auction at Duran Subastas in Madrid.

An essential of genteel Georgian life, silver apple corers with their simple elegance were once much prized by collectors. However, a collection of nine early 19th century examples offered at Woolley & Wallis on April 24-25 met a mixed reception, with only five getting away.

A speciality for collectors of silver wine labels are the enamelled examples produced in Battersea in the 18th century.

Two fine Dutch pieces quadrupled estimates at Woolley & Wallis on April 24-25: a c.1637 wine cup by an unidentified Middelburg smith and a table bell.

Australian enthusiasts did much to buoy up the Royal Doulton market in its 1990s pomp. And one such fan certainly did his bit to bring some life to what can now be a weak market by consigning a choice collection of Lambeth, flambé, Burslem and prototype wares to Kingham & Orme (20% buyer’s premium).