Gorringes

The name of the Finnish writer and illustrator Tove Jansson (1914-2001) may not be as familiar in the UK as that of many other creators of children’s favourites.

Across the past 13 months Gorringe’s (21% buyer’s premium) in Lewes has dispersed the remarkable assemblage of English porcelain formed by the collector and academic Dr Dennis G Rice.

A cross-section of Asian art – Qing porcelain, Meiji Satsuma and Euro-Asiatic ivories – provided the prizes at Gorringe’s (21% buyer’s premium) spring sale held in Lewes.

A rare creamware transfer printed and painted beaker offered for sale by Mellors & Kirk (20% buyer’s premium) in Nottingham told a dark tale.

With the UK auction calendar yet to undergo significant changes and cancellations due to the coronavirus outbreak, many sales took place last week. Here are three highlights from around the country.

Guangzhou bracket example leads a selection of stand-out timepieces sold in the regions.

“I will always be a painter of beaches,” declared Eugène Boudin (1824-98) in 1864.

Preview held in imposing stately home helps to boost interest ahead of first sale section.

After a 17-minute bidding battle, a Chinese blue and white bottle vase with a Daoguang (1820-50) six-character seal mark was hammered down for £270,000 at Gorringe’s in Lewes, East Sussex.

Three modestly valued works selling at regional sales for £3000 or under, including a Francis Bacon lithograph.

Sold alongside a pile of Victorian green-glazed leaf plates and dishes, the primary appeal of this lot offered in a weekly sale at Gorringe’s (21% buyer’s premium) of Lewes was the whimsical majolica cheese dish.

A near sell-out show at The Redfern Gallery in London in 1963 immediately established Patrick Procktor (1936-2003), the Dublin-born painter, as a star of the London art scene at the age of just 27.

Original paintings by Abstract artist Nicolas de Stael (1914-55) rarely appear at auction outside the main salerooms in London, Paris and New York.

Three modestly valued works selling at regional sales at under £1000, including a Ronald Ossory Dunlop late work.

Associations including Queen Victoria’s daughter help to boost 17th century manuscript.

Illustrated below is one of seven lots of Dutch ‘white metal ’ miniature tableware and furniture entered into a weekly general sale at Gorringe’s (21% buyer’s premium).

After almost 50 years on public display in the silver galleries at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, a James I silver shell-form spice or sugar box was offered for sale at Salisbury saleroom Woolley & Wallis.

Flemish Old Masters and Modern works combined to boost takings at two spring sales held north and south in England.

Until March 17, 1834, Her Majesty’s Body Guard of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms was known as The Honourable Band of Gentlemen Pensioners.