Sworders

Proceeds of painting by artist-plantsman Cedric Morris will benefit Benton End – the house where it was painted and home of the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing

This Italian marble bust of an emperor, catalogued as 17th century after the antique, provided a moment of saleroom drama at Sworders’ Fine Interiors auction in Stansted on September 10.

Purchased for £1 from a Hertfordshire charity shop earlier this year, a Qianlong famille rose wall vase will carry an estimate of over £50,000 at Sworders in the autumn.

An archive relating to a once famous Suffolk dynasty comes for sale at Sworders in Stansted Mountfitchet on September 10-11. The diaries, journals and letters of Lady Ann Cullum (1807-75) of Hardwick House near Bury St Edmunds form part of a Fine Interiors sale.

Three modestly valued works selling at regional sales at £750 or under, including an oil by designer known more for Arts & Crafts jewellery and furniture.

Private buying dominated as Essex saleroom Sworders (23% buyer’s premium) offered the selected contents of a Cotswold manor house.

The Flemish post-Impressionist Emile Claus (1849-1924) embraced the prevailing taste for plein-air painting when he moved to the village of Astene by the river Lys in 1883.

Pieces from the late 19th century, a vibrant but occasionally derided moment in the history of the decorative arts, provided many of the highlights to Sworders’ summer Fine Interiors sale in Stansted Montfitchet.

Unusually for an Asian art sale, the top price at Sworders' latest offering in in Stansted Mountfitchet was paid for a Japanese work of art.

This Chinese export charger, measuring 15in (40cm), is one of two from the service made for Captain Matthew Martin, captain of the 32-gun East Indiaman Marlborough.

A collaborative portrait between two revered 19th century equestrian painters will lead a sale of sporting art at Essex saleroom Sworders on April 30.

Weekly clearance sales are increasingly being replaced by newly branded formats as auction houses are responding to fresh consumer trends.

London Judaica dealer Joseph Landau travelled to Sworders in Stansted Moutfitchet on March 13 with the sole purpose of buying a pencil, charcoal and white chalk drawing Carrying the Torah by Simeon Solomon (1840-1905).

In the wake of record auction prices – the first £1m bottle of whisky and a $500,000 bottle of wine – four auction specialists discuss the lively market for fine and rare wines and whisky. A potted history of wine-related antiques follows. First up: Richard Brierley of Forum Auctions and Sam Hellyer of Chiswick Auctions on the wine market.

Stansted Mountfitchet auction room Sworders is opening a viewing and consignment office in central London next week.