Wotton Auction Rooms

It was a case of sitter rather than artist determining the value of an otherwise unassuming portrait that came up at Wotton Auction Rooms’ latest sale.

With estimates from £200-8000, here are five previews from upcoming sales this week.

Joe Trinder is leaving Wotton Auction Rooms, were he is auctioneer, valuer and cataloguer, to join start-up saleroom Dawson’s.

Joseph Trinder, 23, has been elected president of The National Association of Valuers and Auctioneers (NAVA) for 2016-17, the youngest member to hold the position in the association’s history.

A companion work to an August Bohm masterpiece has bought a house record to Gloucestershire firm Wotton Auction Rooms.

Wotton Auction Rooms, Wotton-Under-Edge, February 22-23, Buyer’s premium: 15 per cent ALL manner of exotic beasts and big game hunting trophies passed through the hands of the celebrated London taxidermists Rowland Ward in the late 19th/ early 20th century.

Wotton Auction Rooms Wotton-under-Edge October 19-20 Buyer’s premium: 15 per cent THIS wide-ranging, 1600-lot Gloucestershire sale was helped by a large number of probate estates which furnished proceedings with the type of reasonably estimated material sought after by dealers and collectors alike.

WITH rising interest rates, a fluctuating stock market, selective bidding and increasing competition for quality private consignments, now may not be thought to be the most prudent time for expansion but Wotton Auction Rooms (15% buyer's premium) have gone ahead with plans to build a larger saleroom within their existing premises. It will open next month.

QUALITY, rarity, condition, provenance and fashion all have a bearing on auction prices, but perhaps the most difficult criterion for any specialist to value is the appeal of an object’s quirkiness.

THREE large Art Deco plaster panels, two details shown right, which had lain unseen and unloved in the basement of a London property for years, had an extraordinary appeal which eluded both their owners and cataloguers judging by their reception at Wotton Auction Rooms (15% buyer’s premium).

While many provincial auctioneers berate the slowing down of the brown furniture market, Phillip Taubenheim of Gloucestershire auctioneers Wotton Auction Rooms (10% buyer’s premium) is finding it pretty healthy. “As long as we are realistic with our vendors and they are realistic with us, everything seems to be OK,” he said.

What will £1500 buy in today’s picture market? If quality is going to be my criterion and oil painting is my medium, then not very much, one might be forced to conclude after reading the latest report on how the market is polarising between an increasingly expensive best and a totally undesirable rest.

AUCTIONEER Mark Bowman is hardly the first auctioneer to be taken aback by the price achieved by a piece of Oriental porcelain, and not just at provincial rooms like his operation at the Wotton Auction Rooms (10% buyer’s premium).