Auctions

As auction houses expand their specialist sales programmes, separate departments can also develop if the volume of business is worth it. Not many have a dedicated single-owner department, however.

Cirencester auction house Moore Allen & Innocent will offer a cache of uncensored letters written by a prominent First World War officer.

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period November 2-8, 2017. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

A brief letter of 1864 in which Ulysses S Grant agrees to General William T Sherman’s ‘March to the Sea’, a bold plan to destroy Atlanta, then march across Georgia to Savannah or Charleston during the American Civil War, sold for $100,000 (£75,755) on October 19, at Heritage Auctions (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) in Dallas.

Not many new faces at salerooms can include among their experience “a trained horse whisperer”.

A mid-19th century scrimshaw carved whalebone walking cane sold for a house record of £17,000 (plus 18% buyer’s premium) at East Bristol Auctions on November 9.

Earlier works in an October 18 sale held by Cheffins (22.5% buyer’s premium) included a scarce 1688 first of Randle Holme’s The Academy of Armory, or a Storehouse of Armory and Blazon, an heraldic work by the third member of a distinguished Chester family of heraldic painters and genealogists to bear that name. It made £1200.

In business for 20-plus years, former Sotheby’s auctioneer Catherine Southon, founder of the eponymous auction house and antiques TV presenter, takes nothing for granted.

It’s a new name and a new start for a Jedburgh saleroom this autumn.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.