Auctions

A £100 Lloyd’s Patriotic Fund sword, one of 23 awarded to captains who fought at Trafalgar, sold for $235,000 (£173,000), plus 15% buyer’s premium, to one of six phone bidders competing at James D Julia in Fairfield, Maine, on April 11.

A rare ebonised framed armchair after the original design by Edward William Godwin (1833-86) sold for £44,000 (plus 18% premium) at Moore Allen & Innocent in Cirencester on April 21.

A Spanish oil billed as an early work by Diego Velázquez (1599-1660) sold for €8m (£7m) at the Madrid auctioneers Abalarte on April 25.

A rare English humpback carriage clock is coming up for sale at Dr Crott in Frankfurt on May 6. The 6in (16cm) high calendar timepiece with phases of the moon and an English lever escapement was manufactured in the 1890s by Jump of London.

Several single-owner collections boosted the total of Tennants’ (20% buyer’s premium) Spring Fine Art Sale in Leyburn, North Yorkshire, on March 25.

Interest in 20th century maps is growing rapidly among dealers, collectors and curators. And some are rarer than you might think, writes Tim Bryars.

This flock of five sheep, Nouveaux Moutons, by the popular French designer François-Xavier Lalanne, will feature in Palm Beach Modern Auction’s two-session sale of around 500 lots on May 6 in Palm Beach.

A painting by British landscape artist Harry Epworth Allen (1894-1958) drew a flurry of bids at Gardiner Houlgate (20% buyer’s premium) in Corsham near Bath on March 29-31.

A selection of forthcoming UK and international auction highlights.

One of the highlights of Mossgreen’s sale of Decorative Arts to be held in Armadale, Melbourne, on May 8-9 is this 11in (26.5cm) diameter 17th century terrestrial table globe with its original mahogany cradle.

Among a handful of pieces of Gallé French art glass in a sale of decorative arts and design to be held by Tessier Sarrou & Associés at Drouot on May 4 is this example of the designer’s skills in the medium.

A fine collection of Meiji and 19th century Chinese ivory works of art sold at Hansons (17.5% buyer’s premium) offered a window onto a turbulent market.

Silver was among the success stories of the wide-ranging March 30-April 1 sale at Hansons, in particular a 1705 Britannia standard chocolate pot.

In what has been a buoyant first quarter for clocks of quality, the 109 examples at Chiswick Auctions’ (22% buyer’s premium) March 21 sale of horology and European works of art made a significant contribution to the £225,000 taken by the 275 lots on offer.

Literary anniversaries are a good story to tell to potential sellers but do they bring greater interest and greater prices?