Woolley & Wallis

Jewellery provided one of the great expressions of the Art Nouveau style. Here ATG reports on four exceptional items made in four different countries in the early years of the 20th century

Interest in glyphic art, that reached its collecting apogee during Grand Tour collecting, is resurgent once more.

Believing there’s room for impartial art advice from an auction veteran, Clive Stewart-Lockhart has left Woolley & Wallis to embark on one last career move. Noelle McElhatton went to hear his plans ahead of the current Covid-19 lockdown

This photo was taken at the July 1992 sale of the contents of Sunnyclose, near Henley-on-Thames.

Clive Stewart-Lockhart recalls memorable sales, including one ‘barn find’ with a difference, across his 45-plus years as an auctioneer

Responsible for the flowers at the Queen’s coronation, the society florist Constance Spry (1886-1960) is also credited with the ‘democratisation’ of flower arranging.

Three modestly valued works selling at regional sales including a William Gear acrylic painting.

The recent sale of Clarice Cliff, Art Deco & Design at Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury included 27 works by the studio potter William Staite Murray (1881-1962).

Houstoun-Boswall consignment includes Robert Adam’s proposal for Scottish country house

This pair of 19th century continental silver-gilt figure groups is among the objects from a Rothschild collection to be sold by Woolley & Wallis later this year.

A spectacular competition came at Woolley & Wallis’ latest picture sale as 12 bidders pursued a pair of Italian Old Masters which the auction house had spotted tucked away in a dark corner of the vendor’s top landing.

Judith Howard (1945-2019), collector, part-time dealer, museum curator, author, TV expert and lecturer, was a self-confessed ‘maximalist’. Every shelf and wall space in her Wiltshire end-of-terrace was there to be filled. Dusting was a chore reserved for just one day a year.

The opening lot of the Five Centuries sale at Lyon & Turnbull (25% buyer’s premium) in Edinburgh on February 5 was this previously unrecorded maiolica handled and spouted wet drug jar.

Business was certainly hard-won but the elite of Britain and Ireland’s regional fine art auction houses enjoyed a largely positive 2019.

Highlight literally and metaphorically of the Woolley & Wallis sale on January 8 was a pair of ormolu and hardstone-mounted candelabra, superb in themselves and packed with French royal history.

A trio of five-figure offerings got Salisbury auction house Woolley & Wallis (25% buyer’s premium) off to a great start for 2020.

A trio of pure collectables picked up by UK privates bidders at the Woolley & Wallis (25% buyer’s premium) auction in Salisbury on January 8.