Kinghams

Collectors of Staffordshire have noted a number of higher prices of late and further evidence of a more active market came when a pair of Victorian Staffordshire flatback figures was offered by Lacy, Scott & Knight (22.5% buyer’s premium).

The sale at Kinghams (23% buyer’s premium) in Moreton-in-Marsh included a 12in (30cm) carved cinnabar lacquer dish dating from the late Yuan or early Ming period – c.1350-1400.

A small and recently discovered painting by Peter Lanyon (1918-64) emerged at Kinghams’ (23% buyer’s premium).

A look at upcoming jewellery auction lots

In colonial Mexico cacao beans and vanilla pods assumed a similar status to tea leaves in England.

Among the most desirable of all ‘Prattware’ transfer printed wares are the series of very rare and highly decorative advertising plaques produced for firms such as Crosse & Blackwell and Huntley & Palmers.

Famille rose vases decorated with ‘Hundred Boys’ scenes are among the most commercial of all Qing ceramics.

The murder of William Weare in the Hertfordshire village of Radlett in 1823 has been called the first trial by newspaper.

Works by William Ratcliffe (1870- 1955) are pretty rare on the market and, when they do turn up, they tend to appear at London auctions.

Grisly figures burning at the stake reflected religious background of Staffordshire potters

In June 2008, Canterbury Auction Galleries claimed a record price for a Louis Wain ceramic when a version of the 11in (28cm) Futurist Cat in blue with Amphora factory marks sold at £8200.

A woodcut by German Expressionist Max Pechstein (1881-1955) brought overseas interest to Kinghams (23% buyer’s premium) back on March 3-5.

A woodland scene by Hungarian painter Bertalan Pór (1880-1964) caught the eye of a number of bidders at a Cotswolds saleroom.

Appealing to a range of different types of collectors, particularly aficionados of sewing antiques, Victorian and Edwardian animal pin cushions have their own niche in the novelty silver field.

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.

Pictures by eastern European artists generating interest from national-minded buyers is an increasingly common sight at UK regional sales.

Published in 1906 in a limited run of just 100 copies on paper and 20 on vellum was an edition of Sir Thomas More’s Utopia employing a red and black Subiaco typeface with red initials designed by Eric Gill.

Although catalogued by Smiths of Newent (20% buyer’s premium) as a chair from the early 19th century Empire period, this ebonised mahogany, gilt and polychrome side chair is more probably from the mid-Victorian period.

The recent release of 'The Electrical Life of Louis Wain' starring Benedict Cumberbatch provided a topical spin to this rare Amphora pottery model.

Christopher Dresser created a number of daring geometric designs for silver and silver-plated toast racks in the late 1870s and early 1880s, both for Hukin & Heath and for James Dixon & Son.