Bonhams

A clock made for King William and Queen Mary by Thomas Tompion (1639-1713) was hammered down for £1.6m atThe Clive Collection of Exceptional Clockssale on June 19 at Bonhams.

With an infamous lack of a ‘signature’ look, Northern Irish painter Colin Middleton (1910-83) is something of an art historical chameleon.

Uncut and partially unopened, a truly exceptional presentation copy of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species… sold for a record $400,000 (£316,353) in a recent US sale.

As the battle for the ‘middle market’ heats up, the London auction scene today offers visitors a wider choice of items to buy and more places to bid for them.

An impressive 8in (20cm) high ice pail, cover and liner made what is thought to be a record auction result for Swansea porcelain when it sold for £38,000 hammer at Bonhams in Knightsbridge on June 5.

The latest week of Russian art auctions in London generated £35.8m including premium, the highest total for a June series in this category since 2014.

Undoubtedly the most evocative account of the workshop of the celebrated clockmaker Joseph Knibb comes from a letter written by the Restoration-era politician Richard Legh (1635-87) of Lyme Hall in Cheshire to his young wife, Elizabeth.

Bonhams will offer the most valuable English Golden Age clock ever to appear at auction as part of next month’s sale of the Clive collection.

Spring is a traditional point in the saleroom calendar for New York to mount its tribal art auctions.

After more than two centuries of collecting history, the market is once again changing how it evaluates – and values – rare books by women. Bonhams’ head of books Matthew Haley reports...

A Qianlong (1736-95) three-colour lacquer throne provided the London series of Asian art sales with its headline moment.

A classic oil on canvas of yacht racing by renowned British painter Montague Dawson (1890-1973) was top-seller of The Marine Sale at Bonhams Knightsbridge (27.5/25/20/13.9% buyer’s premium) on May 1.

After 44 years working as an auction house specialist, John Sandon has chosen to retire from his post as international director of glass and British ceramics at Bonhams.

While Sotheby’s and Christie’s no longer hold regular dedicated auctions of European ceramics, they still cater for elements of this market in their main centres worldwide via series of mixed-discipline traditional decorative arts auctions.