Dawsons

How much would you spend on an antique or vintage chess set? Here are three examples from different periods that sold across a wide range of prices.

Kashmir sapphires have acquired a near-legendary status, due to their lustrous cornflower colour, soft velvety texture and extreme rarity.

The September 21 sale at Dawsons in Maidenhead includes this Cartier natural sapphire and diamond brooch designed as a single bloom of cherry blossom.

A fine Oscar Wilde letter sold for £16,000 at Dawsons (25% buyer’s premium) in Maidenhead on June 29.

This ‘ferris wheel’ timepiece, thermometer and barometer compendium is a novel type that was first made in France in the last quarter of the 19th century.

It is 20 years ago that the auction record for Clarice Cliff was sent tumbling when an 18in (46cm) May Avenue charger sold for £34,000 at Christie’s South Kensington on May 14, 2003. Those were heady days indeed.

Shown here is a copy in Latin of the 'Quirtii Horatii Flacci' opera, 1823, presented by Charles Dickens to his Latin tutor Richard Shiers (mentioned in a book titled 'The Life of Charles Dickens', p45).

Family group at auction offered works by several generations including the renowned John Sell Cotman

As timing goes, the sale date for an album of handwritten letters, photographs and ephemera related to Sophia Duleep Singh (1876-1948) could not have been much better.

Featuring in the June 22 Jewellery, Watches Silver auction at Dawsons in Maidenhead is this late Victorian diamond garland necklace.

Flying over a £200-300 estimate at a recent sale at Dawsons (25% buyer’s premium) in Maidenhead were two small mixed-media works by Maliheh Afnan (1935-2016).

A collection of works by the Cotman family of artists is coming for sale at Maidenhead auction house Dawsons this month.

The May 18 sale of Jewellery, Watches & Silver at Dawsons includes a pair of silver sauce tureens by William Bateman for Rundell, Bridge & Co, London 1837.

Angelica Kauffman (1741-1807) was one of the most recognised artists of her day with her reputation spreading across Italy, France, Poland and Russia.

An example of 17th century hollowware appeared for sale at Dawsons (23% buyer’s premium) in Maidenhead earlier this year.

With the discovery of the intact tomb of Tutankhamun in 1923, an Egyptian revival swept through the decorative arts. Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels were among the first to design jewels that mixed Egyptian motifs with the geometry and bold colours of the Art Deco era. But other French, British and US ateliers soon followed.

Laidlaw Auctioneers and Valuers has invested in a new premises in Carlisle with a café and a museum on site and the auction house is confident that room bidding is not a thing of the past.

Dawsons Auctioneers is relocating to a larger new premises and plans to hold all its sales as live online-only without room bidding.

Estimated at £200-300, this kaskara sold for £8200 at Dawsons (23% buyer’s premium) in Maidenhead on October 28.