Auction Reports

A group of portrait miniatures sold recently by John Nicholson’s (30/25% buyer’s premium) in Haslemere, Surrey included this English school image, c.1700, of William Fermor, 1st Baron Leominster.

The Chad Valley tinplate toy 'The Climbing Miller' is based closely on an earlier ‘gravity’ toy called 'Gustav the Busy Miller' that was one of Lehmann’s most popular issues made for close to 50 years in the pre-war era.

It was not just the great and good of 18th century Europe and North America who commissioned the Thirteen Factories at Canton to embellish Chinese porcelain blanks with family armorials or subjects copied from prints.

Scotland’s key role in the 18th and 19th century China trade has a legacy. Some of the nation’s country houses remain the repository of important Far Eastern works of art.

This couture gown, sold for £360 at Sworders (25% buyer’s premium), was once owned by the woman who hosted the wedding of Wallis Simpson and the Duke of Windsor.

Covid-19 crisis has launched the art and antiques world into technological exploration

Among the top-estimated lots at the Lyon & Turnbull (25% buyer’s premium) sale of African & Oceanic Art, Antiquities and Natural History in Edinburgh on May 5 was a hammered bronze Apulo-Corinthian helmet from southern Italy, c.350-500BC.

This 3ft (91cm) high hard-sided 'tik', or Torah scroll container is representative of the type used in the Sephardic tradition.

Svend Hammershøi (1873-1948), younger brother of painter Vilhelm, is best known as a ceramicist but he was also a silversmith.

Results from two salerooms including an £18,000 longcase reflect strong demand

Trudpert Schneider (1804-99), a Freiburg carpenter whose first brush with photography was to repair a broken box camera, is today deemed one of Germany’s most important daguerreotypists.

The sale held by Swan Fine Art (20% buyer’s premium) in Tetsworth on May 6 included a fine-quality ventriloquist’s doll, c.1930.

The team at antiques dealership Robert Mills Architectural spent decades salvaging items from closed-down churches, banks, mansions and pubs.

At Keys (20% buyer’s premium) in Aylsham a lot catalogued as ‘a patinated bronze group of a lion attacking a horse’ drew – and to an extent commanded – much attention.

Form, colour and condition are defining criteria in the oak market – and unfortunately this 17th century oak ‘credence’ offered by Claydon Auctioneers (19.5% buyer’s premium) in Middle Claydon, Buckinghamshire, on April 27 was a lacking on at least two fronts.

This vessel with its cluster of bottles around a central conical vase is one of several well-known Dresser-Linthorpe models that owe a debt to pre-Columbian art.

This original poster marks Live Aid, the dual-venue benefit concert held simultaneously in London and Philadelphia on July 13, 1985.

A gold winner’s medal awarded for the 1893 FA Cup – Wolverhampton Wanderers’ first major trophy – sold for £8000 at Mullock’s (20% buyer’s premium) on April 29-30.

Norfolk auction house sells 11 guns with provenance to one of the most renowned enthusiasts

A Purdey & Sons double-barrel hammer rifle built in 1875 for the Prince of Wales’ Indian tour of 1875-76 sold for £8000 at the Gavin Gardiner (25% buyer’s premium) live online auction of Modern & Vintage Sporting Guns on April 22.