Auctions

A hitherto unrecorded teapot attributed to a pioneering American porcelain factory has surfaced in the UK.

Former Christie’s vintage poster specialists Nicolette Tomkinson and Sophie Churcher have teamed up with Lyon & Turnbull to launch dedicated auctions this year.

Complete with slightly frayed and browned but rarely seen jacket, a 1933 copy of George Orwell’s 'Down and Out in Paris and London' was bid to £46,000 by James Hall of Lucius Books in York at a Dominic Winter sale.

While the end of last year was chock-full of auctions, this winter has been even busier.

The Marquis de Sade’s manuscript, '120 Days of Sodom', and André Breton’s 'Surrealist Manifestos' have been declared national treasures by the French government and were withdrawn from a planned auction.

Following the multi-million-pound sale at Sotheby’s in 2015, more items from West Horsley Place, the remarkable Grade I listed mansion in Surrey, are to be sold at auction to raise money for urgent repairs.

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period December 14-20, 2017. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

Beloved of TV antiques programmes and of bidders knowing the lots are absolutely fresh to market, there are few phrases to stir the blood at an auction as much as ‘from the attic’.

Which sector of the traditional antiques trade has been on an unbroken, record-busting rise since the early years of the century?

Qualifying for the oxymoronic term ‘giant carriage clock’, the 8in (20cm) tall gilt-metal carriage clock shown below had the quality to trigger a bidding battle between specialists at Chilcotts (19.5% buyer’s premium) in Honiton on December 2.