Auctioneers

This oil painting of the RMS Queen Mary, below, by marine painter William McDowell (1888-1950) was taken to a multi-estimate £12,000 at Surrey saleroom John Nicholson’s (24% buyer’s premium).

Tim Wilkes, a leading expert in Islamic coinage, has joined the coin department at London auction house Dix Noonan Webb.

Chiswick Auctions (25/12% buyer’s premium) has held its first dedicated Old Masters sale, capitalising on the void left by Christie’s South Kensington’s closure last year.

Another classic piece of English furniture to go well above expectations was a Regency mahogany window seat in the style of George Bullock offered by the Cumbrian firm 1818 Auctioneers (17/12% buyer’s premium).

This late 19th century ‘natural history’ specimen purports to be the mummified body of a creature that was half mammal and half fish.

As with the overall market, Dutch furniture is much less popular than it once was and the 18th century walnut, floral marquetry and ivory-inlaid bombé bureau cabinet, below, had a couple of condition problems for bidders at Andrew Smith (19% buyer’s premium).

The great Hungarian love affair with Zsolnay Pec ceramics goes on, most recently witnessed in the East Sussex rooms of Burstow & Hewett (15% buyer’s premium) when 27 lots were offered.

Further discoveries from recent New York and London auctions including polar rarities.

Three 19th century porcelain figures from a Peoples of Russia series consigned to Lincoln auction house Golden Young & Mawer (20% buyer’s premium) by a local vendor attracted interest from the US to Russia.

In 1876 Lewis Carroll had 140 copies of 'The Hunting of the Snark. An Agony in 8 Fits' specially bound in gilt decorated cloth for presentation and just a few weeks ago ATG noted the sale at £3600 by Dominic Winter of one of the 20 blue and gold versions.

The rise of the ‘young classics’ has helped the market become accessible to investors across all prices. Nigel Boothman talks to auctioneers and experts about accelerating trends for 2018. He also looks at the motorbikes and automobilia markets.

In the first of a two-part report spotlighting UK auction house performance and trends in 2017, ATG reviews the hammer totals and top lots at some of the regions’ leading salerooms.

Outsold, predictably enough, by an 18th-19th century Chinese vase, two late 19th century Persian moulded pottery tiles were the eye-catchers among a buoyant Asian works of art section at Billingshurst auction house Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium).

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships

A selection of classic car stand-out lots at upcoming UK sales.

Among the lots offered in the March 9 Books and Manuscripts auction at Bonhams New York is an Isaac Newton work now with parallels to the rather more modern Harry Potter books.

A signed and inscribed first edition of F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby has hopes of selling for as much as $100,000 in Heritage Auctions’ Rare Book auction on March 7 in New York.

Fellows boss Stephen Whittaker on where growth lies despite Brexit and other challenges

Experimental work by the Czech Expressionist Ernest Neuschul (1895-1968) chimed with current tastes in a sell-out studio sale in Somerset.