Auctions

Auction houses across the country are grappling with the practicalities of staging auctions safely as the UK enters its third week of the government-sanctioned shutdown.

There were two in the room when British Bespoke Auctions held a four-and-a half hour sale last week. On the rostrum on April 1, in an office rather than the saleroom (which is closed), was Nicholas Granger. Behind him was Bella, a blue-and-gold macaw who has been by his side for 20 years.

Although often overshadowed by her famous father William, May Morris (1862-1938) was herself an important figure in the British Arts & Crafts movement.

The recent auction held ‘live online’ by Aldridges of Bath included this spectacular hand-woven north Indian long shawl, or dochalla. It came with a colonial provenance.

Some keenly contested examples of Asian art featured in the large sale held by Schuler in Zurich on March 23-27.

Books, catalogues, ephemera, pictures and other material from the collections of the Shorthorn Society of the United Kingdom & Ireland formed a significant part of a recent Carlisle sale.

Tiffany and Lalique glassware from a private New York City collector provided some of the highlights in the Clarke Auction Gallery (25% buyer’s premium) online and phone bidding sale.

Maud O’Reilly (1886-1971), a key figure in Queensland’s Arts & Crafts movement and a student of the LJ Harvey school, showed her pottery at a number of British exhibitions in the mid 1920s.

Puritan Cotton Mather’s defence of executions is latest work on the subject to surface.

Among a 200-lot list of vinyl records by a galaxy of rock and pop stars, punk provided the outstanding performance at Cottees’ (18% buyer’s premium) specialist sale at Poole.

An early work by Boris Anisfeld titled 'Adam and Eve' made one of the highest prices in the Russian paintings and works of art auction at Shapiro (25% buyer’s premium) in New York

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from April 7-25, 2020.

The first 20 lots of the recent football memorabilia sale at Stacey’s in Rayleigh, Essex came from the family of the Edwardian player Benjamin Warren (1879-1917).

An unusual late Victorian silver pocket watch by Herbert Blockley of London sold for an unexpected £2800 at Potteries Auctions (20% buyer’s premium) in Stoke-on- Trent.

An unsigned Frank Auerbach (b.1931) sketch in coloured inks of Camden Theatre in London, a favourite subject of the artist, emerged as the top-selling lot at Scarborough saleroom David Duggleby (22.5% buyer’s premium).

A group of pictures from the collection of the late art dealer Duncan Campbell, who died in 2011, were among the lots drawing interest at Dreweatts.

A cross-section of Asian art – Qing porcelain, Meiji Satsuma and Euro-Asiatic ivories – provided the prizes at Gorringe’s (21% buyer’s premium) spring sale held in Lewes.

A Linthorpe pottery dish designed for the Middlesbrough pottery by Dr Christopher Dresser sold online well over a £400-600 estimate for £4200 at Paul Beighton (17.5% buyer’s premium).