Auctioneers

A round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days, including an 18th century Kyoto carving setting an auction record at Bonhams for any netsuke.

The Rokujuyoshu Meisho Zue (Famous Views of the Sixty-odd Provinces) series was the last great landscape work created by Japanese ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858).

Antiques dealer and taxidermy specialist Emma Hawkins is selling a collection from her townhouses in Edinburgh and London at Sotheby’s this month.

The Komai family of sword makers and armourers were among the many Japanese metalworkers courting a new clientele during the Meiji period (1868-1912).

Although Dutchmen John and David Elers came to London sometime in the 1680s as silversmiths, the brothers are remembered today as the potters who brought fine unglazed stonewares to Staffordshire.

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 large reticulated ‘dragon and phoenix’ censer came for sale at Mallams’ (25% buyer’s premium) in Cheltenham from a Herefordshire vendor whose family had lived in Shanghai in the 1930s.

Neolithic jade congs – the inspiration for many pieces of Qing and later porcelain – are probably some of the most intriguing objects from ancient Chinese culture.

Vietnamese buyers have sent the best works of art from the Le (1428-1789) and Nguyen (1802-1945) dynasties to unchartered territory in recent years.

“We have been to the Pole and we shall die like gentlemen.”

Creative examples featured in recent UK auctions show the influence of religion and culture on the Manchu rulers of the Qing

An unusual subject and composition helped propel interest in a Jacobean double portrait of two young brothers at Dreweatts’ latest Old Master, British and European Art sale.

A set of four miniature oil paintings depicting Derby-winning racehorses belonging to John Bowes (1811-85), co-founder of The Bowes Museum, has been reunited after being bought at auction.

Vectis Auctions is expanding into new categories and has added three new departments.

A small drawing by John Constable of a tree in his birthplace of East Bergholt sold for a triple-estimate £31,000 (plus 22% buyer’s premium).

We regret to announce the death of David Rogers Jones (1942-2022), the co-founder of Welsh auction house Rogers Jones & Co. He was 80 years old.

The most famous of the many silversmiths in the German city of Hanau in the late 19th century was Neresheimer & Söhne.