Auctions

All fairs and markets and physical art and antiques exhibitions and events are cancelled across England under the new coronavirus lockdown restrictions.

Bonhams has set a new record for a toby jug with this c.1785 Admiral Lord Rodney jug.

The highlight of a private collection of Robert Thompson oak carvings to be offered by Tennants on March 6 is this curious anthropomorphic figure of the ‘Mouseman of Kilburn’.

A copy of the Royal Doulton dinner service commissioned in 1922 for Queen Mary’s doll’s house sold for a top-estimate £30,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) as part of the Thomas Goode auction at Sotheby’s.

Three works from British vendors were among the most notable lots at Sotheby’s (25/20/13.9% buyer’s premium + 1% overhead premium) latest Old Master evening sale in London.

A recent sale at Franklin Browns (18% buyer’s premium) in Edinburgh on included one of the most ambitious and most desirable of all early 19th century Staffordshire figure groups: the 'Polito’s Menagerie of the wonderful burds and beasts from most parts of the world'.

When the Bolshevik government took control of the Imperial Porcelain Factory following the October Revolution of 1917, large quantities of glazed but unpainted white hard-paste porcelain plates, cups and saucers remained at the site.

Bonhams has a long tradition of single-owner sales devoted to noted collections of early English porcelain.

The rules of kriegsspiel (war game), popular at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, were partly based on the much older game of chess. Typically, kriegsspiel was played across three boards, with players only knowing the position of their own pieces and an umpire officiating.

Controversial school sale of library books and manuscripts includes an Irish/Latin surprise

A marine battle scene believed to have once been owned by auctioneer James Christie (1730-1803) topped Bonhams’ (27.5%/25/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) latest Old Master sale in London.

A collection of English pottery offered by Adam Partridge (20% buyer’s premium) in Macclesfield included this early 19th century copper lustre and transfer printed ‘anti-slavery’ mug.

London salerooms hope for increased consignments after a difficult year for Old Masters

The Welsh Sale at Rogers Jones (22% buyer’s premium) in Cardiff included a large section of Welsh ceramics from a west Wales estate.

A London auction offering ceramics fans a treat thanks to single-owner collections and a mixed array leads a look at the market as a whole

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

Some of the best US coin discoveries are today made in the UK.

Presenting, as always, huge numbers of lots – some 2800 this time, an auction held by Reiss & Sohn (19% buyer’s premium) produced some notable prices.