Chiswick Auctions

Qi Baishi’s painting of bees and chrysanthemums is coming up for sale at Chiswick Auctions, featuring both a charming subject and history as it once belonged to a journalist who trod on Chairman Mao Zedong’s toe.

A rare early model of the ‘mystery clock’ invented by magician and horologist Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin (1805-1871) is up for sale at Chiswick Auctions next month.

London Bridge is falling down, goes the song. A bit further upstream, it turns out that the Houses of Parliament are actually doing the falling down.

Fellows’ second Designer Collection sale fetched over £100,000. With a Hermès Birkin 35 taking the top spot, it seems the current trend for classic fashions and accessories at auction is here to stay.

Embroiled in the debate regarding the rights and wrongs of selling elephant ivory works of art, Chiswick Auctions have become the first UK saleroom to stop almost all sales of ivory – regardless of age.

Magistrates have fined a West London auction house £3200 for breaching the Control of Trade in Endangered Species (Enforcement) (CITES) Regulations 1997.

A West London auction house is facing court, charged with the sale of a modern elephant ivory carving under the Control of Trade in Endangered Species (Enforcement) (CITES) Regulations 1997.

Once a common sight on British streets and in public buildings, late Victorian and Edwardian cast-iron vending machines were scrapped for their metal content as they became obsolete or necessary for the war effort.

A COLLECTION of Augustus John drawings, consigned by the family of Dame Elizabeth Taylor, will be sold by a West London auction house on September 28.

CHISWICK Auctions are set to sell one of the most important early paintings by the German Expressionist Ludwig Meidner (1884-1966) to have come to market in recent years.

THE classical horse head with powerful Art Deco styling is among the best known of all the 28 different René Lalique glass car mascots.

THIS 17in (43cm) oval serving dish, seen at Chiswick Auctions latest sale, is from a breakfast service ordered by George III from Flight Barr and Barr of Worcester in 1805.

MEMENTOS of the notorious Kray Twins amassed while they served life sentences in Parkhurst and Broadmoor were offered in some 160 lots at Chiswick Auctions on the evening of January 26.

19th century furniture may not be the height of fashion, but this wine table is one of only a handful known to carry the label of Anton Seuffert, New Zealand’s premier cabinetmaker and inlayer. Many of the timbers seen to the 23in (58cm) diameter top are timbers native to New Zealand.

Underscoring a strength of demand for rhinoceros horn pieces seen in the recent specialist Asian sales, Chiswick Auctions achieved a house record on July 18 when this rhinoceros horn libation cup carved with carp feeding on a waterlily sold to a Taiwanese dealer at £46,000 (plus 15 per cent buyer’s premium). The 18th or possibly 17th century vessel was discovered by auctioneer William Rouse on the sideboard of a modest home in Hanwell, one of West London’s less fashionable suburbs.

TWICKENHAM dealer Cliff Woods, who after two successful fairs at the Star and Garter in Richmond now puts events together as London Antiques Fairs, is on the move in 2004.

Leading the sale of vintage fishing tackle and related items held by Angling Auctions at the Chiswick Town Hall on September 27 was this pot-bellied tooled leather and brass creel made by the Yorkshire saddlers Atkinson c.1780.

Auctioneer Neil Freeman said that he could not remember a high price for multiple cased fish during his 20 years’ experience in the market for antique piscatoria. This 5ft 10in by 4ft 11in (1.78 x 1.50m) cabinet was one of a pair containing 15 brown trout caught by the ninth Earl of Coventry during a fruitful fly-fishing holiday in Ireland in 1879.