Reeman Dansie

The month of March produced an unusually large number of awakened sleepers across the UK’s regional auction rooms – from an Old Master drawing to a rare Marklin tinplate train.

The bullish Modern British art market fuelled the performance of three market-fresh paintings by George Hammond Steel (1900-60) which appeared at an Essex auction.

Two fine examples of Meiji period cloisonné brought similar multi-estimate sums at regional auctions earlier this month.

One half of an extensive single-owner collection of novelty Victorian and Edwardian silver and glass animal objects went under the hammer at Reeman Dansie’s two-day sale in Colchester last week.

Chinese material beyond the headlining world of porcelain continues to boost totals across the UK’s salerooms, occasionally eclipsing estimates.

Taxidermy, having emerged in a few years from a dusty, rather unseemly subject to a rostrum hot topic, continues to flourish across the country.

The most desirable of all sealed bottles are those that are both named and dated. It is the possibility for geneaological research that fires many collectors.

Part of the intake for a general sale, a terracotta sculpture by a protégé of Antonio Canova sold for £21,000 (plus premium) at Reeman Dansie in Colchester.

Three modestly valued works in regional sales including a painting by a pioneer of Iraqi modern art.

With most English furniture still underperforming at auction, it is French 19th century cabinetmaking that is providing the soundest base of furniture sales in England.

Topographical watercolours may not be the hottest area of the art market, but they can still pack a punch in the saleroom.

A small collection of 18th century European porcelain offered by Reeman Dansie in Colchester included this Meissen teapot and cover c.1725.

A gentleman retires to his designated smoker’s chair, picks up his meerschaum pipe and Dunhill lighter and puffs away contentedly by his hearth… a vanished scenario in the UK today but recreated in the antiques world in these three items from December auctions.

Half a dozen works by the obscure British artist Valentine Dobrée (1891-1974) sold for multi-estimate sums at Reeman Dansie (20% buyer’s premium) in Colchester on September 26-27.

Views created by vessel’s captain envisaged a kinder end to its career than a tragic collision...