Auctions

Penguin patties, seal cutlets and roast reindeer – and lots of whisky – were on the menu for a famous meal which was followed by ‘Sledges at 12.30’.

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period December 6-12, 2018. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

The two sewing boxes modelled as houses shown below were made for different markets but both had strong appeal to UK collectors.

‘The Fall of the House of Usher’, ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’, ‘The Mystery of the Marie Roget’ and ‘The Purloined Letter’ are among now famous works that are to be found in the newly discovered first issue copy of Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales shown below.

Featuring 17 lithographed illustrations by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, one of 100 special copies of Gustave Geoffroy’s 1894 homage to the celebrated singer, actress and, in later years, writer, Yvette Guilbert – all of which were signed by the chanteuse – is shown here.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from December 18-January 17, 2018.

After a summer series remembered for its quirky ‘warts and all’ portraiture and an improbable list of celebrity endorsers, including former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham who hosted a series of Sotheby’s consignments at her London fashion showroom, Old Masters were back in familiar territory for the latest offerings in London.

Results from the December 2018 auction series of Old Masters in London.

Golden Age Dutch art topped the bill at Bonhams in the December 5 sale via a fresh-to-market still-life attributed to the 17th century painter Pieter Claesz (1597-1660), which sold for over four times the estimate at £130,000.

Selection of contents from landmark French inter-war modernist building resurface after 1985 dispersal.

Combining results from the Albada collection and its evening sale, Christie’s achieved its highest evening total for a December Old Masters sale in London for seven years.

The second stock sale from the French ceramics specialist Christophe Perlès was held at Drouot by Pescheteau-Badin (26% buyer’s premium inc VAT) on November 26.

Dutch and Flemish art also dominated takings at Sotheby's in New Bond Street on December 5. The category was 90% sold and netted the lion’s share of the sale at £24.6m (with premium), against hopes of £16.8m-23.7m.

Star turn in a sale held in the French city of Angers on December 5 was this small painting by the 17th century French artist Jacques Stella (1596-1657), below.

Russian literary firsts and related manuscripts were the focus of one of the many major sales held in the UK, Europe and the US at the year’s end.

When this Monet maritime sunset below was hammered down for €860,000 (£767,860) – or €1.18m/£1.05m including premium – in Millon’s (25% buyer’s premium) sale of Modern Art on November 26 it not only overturned its €80,000-100,000 estimate but also achieved the second highest result at auction for a pastel by the famous French Impressionist.

On the market for the first time in at least 60 years, and in some cases for more than a century, a small collection of 17th and 18th century silver accounted for a fraction of the lots but 20% of the total at the two-day winter sale at Canterbury Auction Galleries (24% buyer’s premium).