Metalware

Pictured here are three quite different brass fireside fenders – all of them eagerly contested at autumn sales.

Made from paktong, a zinc, copper and nickel (or similar) alloy resembling silver, this c.1780 English travelling chalice, or cup, is modelled on drinking glasses of the period.

Silver by major names from the early to late years of last century were major eyecatchers at the Lacy Scott & Knight (20% buyer’s premium) 20th Century Design Sale in Bury St Edmunds.

From the house clearance of a deceased estate, a small collection of Arts & Crafts metalwork triggered an estimate-demolishing response from dealers and collectors at Fieldings (20% buyer’s premium).

Despite – or because of – the imminent prohibition, good-quality antique ivory works of art continue to bring solid prices at auction.

Sotheby’s Paris (25/20/13.9% buyer’s premium) reported a cumulative total of €5.4m for the five online sales it held over two weeks in mid May through to early June. The initiative attracted new buyers, said the auction house, with 35% in the jewellery sale and 27% in the Contemporary art auction.

Treadway’s (25/20/15% buyer’s premium) Spring sale in Cincinnati was led by examples of Tiffany glassware and a Gallé ceramic.

Christie’s Paris rooms has announced a programme of 18 summer sales that it will be holding over May, June and July. These are a mixture of timed auctions and live online (huis clos) auctions.

The Penal Laws weigh heavily on the history of Ireland. Before they were largely repealed in the period 1778-93, the series of statutes were imposed in an attempt to force Irish Catholics (and Protestant dissenters) to accept the established Church of Ireland.

Treadway Gallery’s Spring Sale of decorative arts will be held in Cincinnati on May 3 using phone, internet and absentee bidding but with no public attendance.

Bonhams Australia is holding its first auction behind closed doors in Sydney on May 13 with bidding online and by phone.

Contents of Palladian home in County Durham provide showpiece auction in Newbury

Second-dibs sales at regional salerooms – those that follow after a major London auctioneer has cherry-picked the contents of a stately country house – can sometimes acquire the slighting epithet of ‘crumbs from a rich man’s table’.

Briefly catalogued, but accurately estimated, this bronze and ivory dancing couple was the outstanding star at Featonby’s (18.75% buyer’s premium) recent sale in North Shields.

This 14in (25cm) diameter bronze bell shown here bears the insignia of the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (the Dutch East India Company or VOC), the date 1747 and the name Jaffanapatnam. It is suspended in a wrought iron frame and mounted to a large stone mill wheel.

When he was only 20, the French sculptor Jules Moigniez exhibited one of his works at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1855.

Highlight literally and metaphorically of the Woolley & Wallis sale on January 8 was a pair of ormolu and hardstone-mounted candelabra, superb in themselves and packed with French royal history.

Cotswolds steel masterworks bring £50,000.