Dreweatts

Gurr Johns acquires London works on paper specialist in auction market shake-up.

A copy of the first folio atlas ever printed in the Islamic world has sold for £69,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) – the highlight of the first day of Dreweatts’ sale titled Weston Hall and the Sitwells: A Family Legacy.

Small bronzes form part of a group of sculptures underlining the market demand at regional salerooms.

This pair of small qingbai foliate dishes from the Northern Song (960-1127) period comes with a receipt showing they were purchased by the Oxfordshire vendor for HK$16,000 from KY Fine Art in Hong Kong on June 7, 2003.

This unusual Meiji period Satsuma vase decorated in overglaze enamels and gilding, with a cockatoo perched on the branch of a flowering magnolia tree, has a gilt seal to the base for the Yabu Meizan workshop.

Another studio sale bringing attention to an artist whose work rarely appears was held at Dreweatts (25% buyer’s premium) via a timed online auction of pictures by Bruce Tippett (1933-2017) that closed on September 16.

This 3ft 5in (1.03m) buff sandstone figure of a male chauri (fan) bearer from 9th-11th century central India, possibly Rajasthan, forms part of Dreweatts’ Asian Art Part 2 sale in Donnington Priory on November 11.

This complete copy of the first folio atlas ever printed in the Islamic world was discovered in one of the nine attics at Weston Hall in Northamptonshire, home of the Sitwell family for more than 300 years.

A drawing from Giovanni Battista Tiepolo’s (1696-1770) Punchinello series is among the highlights of the contents of Weston Hall in Northamptonshire.

This large Ottoman metal thread and silk hanging features a dedication to Sultan Ahmed III (1673-1736).

The dictum that class is permanent was borne out in a Newbury saleroom by prices for damaged pieces

From the same north London home as the Chinese Export mirror and an Irish dining table sold at Dreweatts was this pair of bronzes by Alfred Drury (1856-1944).

Depicting Bacchus and Ariadne riding a golden chariot drawn by leopards, a monumental Mortlake tapestry led a small but significant textiles section at Dreweatts.

Four Victorian bronze tortoises stolen from National Trust property Kingston Lacy in Dorset have been recovered nearly 30 years later.

Two rare and evocative paintings depicting a 19th century ironworks in South Wales were hotly contested at a recent Dreweatts (25% buyer’s premium) sale.

Works by the prolific Arthur Wardle (1864- 1949) appear regularly on the market, most often his paintings of dogs and other hunting animals.