Print Edition

Pitching a work at the right level is crucial to demand and price when it comes to selling unattributed or loosely ascribed Old Masters at auction.

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period July 2-8, 2020. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

The Rijksmuseum was in action at the Drouot to carry off a 9½in (24cm) wide porcelain punchbowl from the Ansbach factory.

This set of 40 Paris porcelain cabinet plates, c.1850, decorated with views of Constantinople, sold for €36,000/£32,730 (estimate €20,000-30,000) at a recent sale held by Dutch firm Oriental Art Auctions (28% buyer’s premium) in Hattem.

A group of seven works from a private collection by René Charles Pierre Princeteau (1843-1919) appeared at the Roseberys sale on June 4, all of them selling for a combined £72,100. Interest was reported from France, Belgium and the US.

When once asked how long he had spent painting a certain picture, Scottish artist William Johnstone (1897-1981) is said to have replied: “Only 10 minutes, I suppose, but it’s taken 70 years of looking.”

On Friday, July 10, Michael Bloomstein of Brighton was paying the following for bulk scrap against a gold fix of: $1805.75 / €1601.11 / £1433.40

Staffordshire flatback figures have been off the boil for a while.

Two pictures from local deceased estates drew solid competition at a recent sale at East Yorkshire auction house Hawleys (20% buyers premium) thanks to being offered with ‘there-to-be-sold’ estimates.

'Concetto spaziale' (1960) by Lucio Fontana is one of the works on offer at The Arts Club exhibition Block Party.

MADAM – the report of the RN Reserve officer’s sword coming up for sale, and the report on the original owner, Erskine Childers, is somewhat incomplete (Previews, ATG No 2449). He in fact served in all three branches of the Service.

A round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days, including a pair of Celtic hounds sculptures being temporarily prevented leaving the UK by the government.

The sale of the Müller-Frei collection of paintings and decorative arts held by Koller (25% buyer’s premium) in Zurich last month included two early 18th century Meissen figure groups that outstripped their estimates.

Rare early map of the region from three years before the Alamo has another saleroom outing

Daniel Hadden trades in art and antiques online and recently featured in ATG as one of the founders of the social media effort #alcoholandframes (see ATG Nos 2447 & 2449).

MADAM – I was astonished to learn that the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has specifically decided to refuse any grants under the Discretionary Grant Scheme to antiques market stallholders in Portobello Market.

MADAM – Might I ask whether one of your readers is able to assist with a little piece of identification?

Large, bold and decorative, transfer-printed pottery footbaths have an appeal that goes beyond collectors of 19th century ceramics.

The gilt decorated blue cloth binding showed signs of age, but a copy of Rudyard Kipling’s 'Captains Courageous, A Story of the Grand Banks' offered in a Philadelphia sale bore the author’s signature on the title-page.

Sixteen upcoming lots from auctions taking place around the UK.