Auction Reports

William Billingsley (1758-1828), a key figure in the history of both English and Welsh porcelain, left the Derby factory in 1795 yearning to create the finest, whitest and most translucent porcelain.

Aficionados of later Chinese porcelain who happened to stumble on a lot of ‘collector’s plates’ at Unique Auctions (17.5% buyer’s premium) in Lincoln would have been excited to spot two fine artist-signed Republic period pieces.

Mallams’ (25% buyer’s premium) latest Asian art sale was topped at £27,000 (estimate £3000-5000) by a Qing jade double gourd form snuff bottle.

A sale at Wilson55 (22% buyer’s premium) in Nantwich this month was topped at £22,000 by an 18th century Flemish ebony and tortoiseshell veneered cabinet.

A recent sale at Bentley’s (19% buyer’s premium) in Cranbrook, Kent included a rare US Presidential lifesaving medallion.

The price gulf that once existed between good 18th century French furniture and very good late 19th century revivalism is no longer visible at auction. A quality reproduction can often outsell its period exemplar.

The vast majority of cushion-moulded mirrors from the late 17th century have lost their original cresting, which was both flamboyant and fragile.

Cheffins (24.5% buyer’s premium) in Cambridge has enjoyed some fine referrals from Christie’s in recent times.

With their cross-over collecting appeal to the automobile market, Lalique 'bouchons de radiator' – car mascots or hood ornaments – assume their own price levels.

While prices and interest have been declining in desk sets since computer laptops rendered them largely redundant, there are exceptions.

As recently as a decade ago relatively little attention was paid to Iraqi niello silver.

Smaller decorative pieces by Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson (1876-1955) continue to excel in the saleroom.

Mallams’ (25% buyer’s premium) Jewellery, Watches and Silver sale included this Commonwealth silver wine goblet.

What auctioneer Michael Callan called “a modest mid terrace town house in Irvine, Ayrshire” was the source of one of the star lots of a recent Thomas R Callan (20% buyer’s premium) sale in Ayr.

Based on Warring States (475-225BC) archetypes, archaistic bronze ritual wine vessels, zun, formed as tapirs became popular during the Northern Song period, remained so through to the Qing dynasty, and are major draws in Western salerooms today.

Richard Miller (1947-2018) was a man with many interests and a good eye.

While wine served by Richard and Sheila Miller was generally drunk from Georgian glasses, it could come to the table via these later talking points.

The best-performing lots in the tribal art sale at Woolley & Wallis (25% buyer’s premium) in Salisbury on June 8 were these two pieces: an Ibibio mask (idiok ekpo) sold at £30,000 and a Nicobar standing male figure (kareau) that brought £34,000.

Some of the zest has gone out of the teddy bear market since the crazy days of two decades ago.

The stopwatch used by English referee Jack Taylor in the 1974 World Cup final sold for a within-estimate £3300 at Fellows (23/15% buyer’s premium) in Birmingham.