Auctions

Provenance proved the key component for two paintings that achieved multi-estimate sums at Bonhams (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) in London.

The current demand for female artists was in evidence at Henry Adams (20% buyer’s premium) of Chichester when a work by Evelyn Ince (1886-1941) went under the hammer.

Three modestly valued works selling at regional sales below £6500 and three upcoming lots offered over the next fortnight, including a painting of Margate by George-William Thornley.

Bigger and better sales for Midlands and Surrey auctioneers and a successful debut auction for the new York venture Duggleby Stephenson (17.5% buyer’s premium) made for an encouraging start to autumn.

Heading the 800 lots of silver which opened the three-day sale at Lawrences (22% buyer’s premium) in Crewkerne was a 11¼in (28.5cm) tall flagon by Thomas Walker, Dublin, c.1750-60.

Formerly in the collections of a distinguished English bibliophile, Major John Roland Abbey, a copy of Luigi Mayer’s well-known set of Views in Egypt, Palestine and the Ottoman Empire was one of the highlights of a recent Scottish sale.

Published in 1962, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase was the first book in a popular series of lupine tales by Joan Aiken (1924-2004), a prolific and prize-winning author whose specialities included the supernatural and children’s books that involved an elaborate, alternative history of Britain.

While it was probably pleasing for a buyer at Holts (25% buyer’s premium) to know a pair of Purdey shotguns had previously been owned by ‘God’, or Eric Clapton as less passionate fans of the great guitarist know him, it did not materially affect the £160,000 winning bid.

A 17th century manuscript grimoire that sold for £18,000 (featured on these pages in ATG No 2363) was very much the star turn of an October 2 sale in Sussex, but certainly not the only lot to catch the eye.

In its short nine-sale history, Kingham & Orme (22% buyer’s premium) has experienced considerable success selling fans, 55 of which were included in the October 5-6 mammoth sale attracting bids from round the world. Many were of museum quality.

A handful of copies of Robert Morden’s 'Geography Rectified, or a Description of the World' have made a little more at auction than a 1680 copy offered in a Stacey’s (24% buyer’s premium) sale of September 10 – but all bar one of them were second or third editions of 1688 and 1693.

Two secular icons of pre- and post-Revolutionary Russia provided the highlights at Lockdales (18% buyer’ s premium) of Ipswich.

The appearance of the 19th century Meissen figure based on Kaendler’s original Count Bruhl’s Tailor begins to bring to mind Monty Python’s Green Knight as he rides undaunted into UK auctions despite his increasingly battered state.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from October 30-November 9, 2018.

Among the most desirable of all needlework samplers are those associated with pupils of the orphanages, asylums and charity schools of the Georgian and Victorian eras.

Netsuke from the collection of ceramicist and author Edmund de Waal, made famous by the 2010 memoir 'The Hare with the Amber Eyes', go under the hammer in London.

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

All rather slim – one in fact a single sheet broadside – the three items noted here were all part of a Bonhams New York (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) sale of September 25 and, spanning some 80 years, all bear Boston imprints.

Rare appearance for quirky artist results in keen competition for work in trademark frame.