Auctions

A sofa in the form of Mae West’s lips and a lobster telephone are among the surrealist lots from West Dean House to go to auction in December.

Sotheby’s has increased its buyer’s premium with the changes effective from November 13.

Art and antiques dealer Gordon Watson sold part of his collection at auction last week, raising £842,939, including premium.

In a new weekend series, Antiques Trade Gazette brings you a selection of quotes from dealers, auctioneers, collectors and others – from the future gazing to recalling past mistakes. For instance, which world famous art dealer sold a signed John Lennon album for a song?

A hand-written and autographed speech by President John F Kennedy is among the lots from Malcolm S Forbes’ estate to be sold at auction next week.

Forum Auctions’ white-glove Banksy sale made more than £600,000 and set 15 records this week.

This early George III mahogany serpentine dressing commode with distinctive carved decoration forms part of a group thought to have been made by the London cabinet-maker William Gomm (c.1698-1780).

Fancy a piece of the opulent Mandarin Oriental hotel in your own living room?

London Asian art specialist Roger Keverne chose to mark his 50th year in the trade with a sale of items from his personal collection.

An original 1920s Vogue cover by French illustrator Georges Lepape broke the auction record for the artist last month.

Antiquities from the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio are to be offered at Christie’s in New York this month to benefit the Museum’s acquisitions fund.

Forum Auctions has formalised its deal with book dealer Filippo Rotundo’s Phiobiblon Gallery and will hold Forum branded auctions in Italy later this month.

Auction specialists in Australia have found a rare Ming Dynasty banknote hidden within a Chinese wooden sculpture. The discovery came at Mossgreen as they were cataloguing the extensive collection of Raphy Star – one of the most important collections of Asian art ever to be offered in the country.

The original ‘It’ bag, a Hermès Birkin, has proved yet again that it remains the world’s most desirable bag after setting an auction record for Fellows Auctioneers this week.

Fewer lots were on offer at this year’s Frieze-week auctions in London but demand generally held up with international bidders taking advantage of favourable exchange rates.

Two Russian diamond necklaces, with links to Peter the Great and Catherine the Great, will be auctioned by Sotheby’s in Geneva next month with a $10m estimate.

African artefacts, jewellery and fossils from a family collection linked to the celebrated palaeoanthropologists, the late Louis and Mary Leakey, are to be sold later this month at The Cotswold Auction Company.

The new management of Stanley Gibbons has launched a scathing attack on the way the firm had been run after the collectables and auction group posted losses of £29m.

Frontman Paul Weller’s shoes and bassist Bruce Foxton’s guitars were among 800 lots of The Jam memorabilia auctioned at the weekend.

A musket made in the Chinese Imperial workshops, complete with marks, will become the first of its kind to be offered at auction next month.