Auction Reports

Research shed light on the ‘Chelsea toys’ made by the mysterious ‘Girl on a Swing’ factory.

Amassed by the headmaster of one of Britain’s finest public schools, the Silk collection of Staffordshire portrait figures provides a fillip to an overlooked market

The game of golf (originating on the eastern coast of Scotland) and mauchlineware (the name given to a family of wooden souvenirs made in south-west Scotland over a period of a century) would seem ideal bedfellows.

If you ever encounter the pub quiz question ‘who is the smallest footballer ever to represent England at a senior level’ just remember an FA Cup winner’s medal sold at sporting specialist auction house Knights (20% buyer’s premium).

A single-owner collection of 33 sovereigns from the reign of Queen Elizabeth I generated a white-glove result at London auction house Dix Noonan Webb (24% buyer’s premium).

Most angles on the collecting spectrum were covered in Bamfords’ (24.75% buyer’s premium) three-day autumnal catalogue.

In demand at home and abroad during his lifetime, the eminent miniaturist John Smart was an international draw at a trio of sales.

Top names in their different fields, ages and markets, Wurlitzer and Armand Marseilles were the star makers at Hartleys (17.5% buyer’s premium).

The Spanish woollen rug illustrated here was pitched at £100-200 in Mallams’ (25% buyer’s premium) Abingdon rooms on October 18.

Estimated at £200-300, this kaskara sold for £8200 at Dawsons (23% buyer’s premium) in Maidenhead on October 28.

The auction at toy specialist C&T (22% buyer’s premium) in Kenardington, Kent, on November 3 included this very rare pair of doll’s shoes dated to c.1700.

Leering 4ft 7in (1.4m) out from the saleroom wall and with a 4ft 2in (50cm) antlers spread, a massive taxidermy moose head and shoulders was the major trophy at the best-yet biannual Country and Sporting sale at Mitchells (22% buyer’s premium).

Anglo-Chinese huanghuali bureau cabinet was spotted just down the road from saleroom

Prompted by a series of fatal mining disasters in the 19th century, a Royal Commission in 1907 recommended the establishment of a miners’ rescue service.

Other than the growing body of his surviving work, little is known about Robert (or Robart) Mindum.

Among Gilbert Ledward’s (1880-1960) most admired works is the sensuous nude, 'Awakening' or 'The Awakening', that today stands in Ropers Garden on the Chelsea Embankment.

William De Morgan considered pieces from the Moonlight and Sunset Suite made in the early 1890s to be his very best work.

A clockmaking industry thrived in the Chew Valley of Somerset in the second half of the 17th century.

After the James Macintyre & Co factory was awarded a gold medal at the St Louis International Exhibition in 1904, Moorcroft pottery was sold in the US by a number of boutique retailers including Shreve & Co of San Francisco and Tiffany in New York.

A group of early 19th century microscope slides mounted with specimens of fossilised wood sold for £11,500 (estimate £1000-1500) to a Canadian private collector at Special Auction Services (25% buyer’s premium) in Newbury.