Auctions

HUNDREDS of Victorian gothic revival floor tiles removed as part of a £2m renovation of the church of St John Baptist, Cirencester, will be sold by Moore Allen & Innocent on Friday, July 25.

Woking, Surrey auctioneers Barbers are to sell musical instruments belonging to the late Nat Temple (1913-2008) on August 4.

Consigned by a local private source, this late Louis XIV contre partie boulle commode c.1710 sold for £155,000 at Dreweatts in Nottingham on July 10.

A rediscovered painting by Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) was the toast of the Old Master auction series in London last week. Missing for almost 200 years and presumed to have been destroyed, La Surprise was offered at Christie’s evening sale on July 8.

This $1000 Straits Settlement bill was described by Spink specialist Barnaby Faull as “the holy grail of Asian Pacific banknotes” after it had sold for Sin$420,000 (£180,000) plus buyer’s premium in Singapore on July 5.

Given that Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott (1865-1945) completed his education and first major commissions on the Isle of Man it is no surprise Manx country is the repository of much work by the Arts and Crafts pioneer. However, few pieces tell a story like the inlaid 'Baillie Scott' sideboard offered for sale by Douglas auctioneers Murrays (incorporating Chrystals) on June 27.

LONDON’S latest contemporary art sales saw vast sums of money continuing to be channelled into top-end post-War art as prices and confidence in the market remained high.

HOTSPUR and Jeremy, two of London’s long-established top antiques dealerships, are to cease trading later this year and hold a joint sale of their stock at Christie’s.

Is this the finest clock to be sold in England this year? The Isle of Wight auctioneers who will offer it for sale next month believe it is. It will be offered for sale by Island Auction Rooms (formerly Shanklin Auction Rooms) at their annual antiques sale timed to coincide with the influx of boating enthusiasts for Cowes Week on August 7.

If Bonhams' July 2 sale of 20th century British art is anything to go by, demand for the humorous art of Beryl Cook (1926-2008) has strengthened since she died in May.

London’s flagship June Impressionist and Modern sales saw Christie’s and Sotheby’s notch up a premium-inclusive total of £298m between them in three days.

The only known copy of the world’s first telephone directory sold for $140,000 (£71,430) at Christie’s New York on June 17 as part of an $11m (£5.9m) sale of the Richard Green scientific library.

THIS pottery figure of a cat is among the rarest of the Cubist-style felines designed by Louis Wain for the Austrian manufacturer Amphora.

Is this the best ever dug bottle? That is the question asked by advertising and bottle specialists BBR who will offer it for sale at The Elsecar Heritage Centre, Barnsley, on July 6.

Sotheby’s have announced the highlight of their autumn series: an auction of new works consigned by Damien Hirst on September 15-16.

Christie’s King Street devoted an entire day to traditional English furnishings when a 369-lot all-day sale of the collection of the late Simon Sainsbury was followed by a highly select, mixed-owner, 12-lot evening auction of what they termed “exceptional furniture”.

The latest addition to the London street art calendar took place at Village Underground in Shoreditch on June 17, where Dreweatts became the first auctioneer from outside London to host a dedicated Urban Art Sale.

THE man regarded as the world’s leading authority on Rembrandt has declared the self portrait that sold at auction in the Cotswolds for £2.2m last October as a genuine work by the Dutch master.

Christie’s English furniture day on June 18 was marked by the £9m auction of a dozen pieces of top-flight examples and by the 369-lot £13.6m sale of the collection of the late Simon Sainsbury.

A COLLECTION of furniture and objects from a grand Parisian townhouse will go under the hammer in France at the end of the month – courtesy of the Ivory Coast Government.