Features

Rare examples of early English porcelain are still capable of remarkable sums.

On April 13 Skinner in Boston is holding one of its periodic sales of European furniture, silver and ceramics. Wedgwood is almost always a feature of these auctions and the latest is no exception.

A massive 3ft (92cm) high majolica urn – a riot of grotesque masks, mythical figures and other motifs drawn from Renaissance sources – combining the talents of two key figures in the history of the Minton factory was included in Fonsie Mealy’s (20% buyer’s premium) sale on March 5.

Last November, Lempertz in Cologne held a successful sale of 19th century porcelain from the so-called Twinight Collection, amassed from 1994 by the New York businessman Richard Baron Cohen.

This 1750s Vincennes porcelain bottle cooler is part of a collection of around 60 lots of French, (mainly Sèvres, Vincennes and Mennecy) porcelain from the estate of the film and television executive John F Ball to be sold by Butterscotch Auctions, in Bedford, New York, on March 30-31.

A wave of fresh interest in female artists is sweeping the UK, forcing museums and galleries to rethink their displays and purchasing policies – and driving demand at dealerships and auction houses in the process.

Waterhouse & Dodd’s Jamie Anderson attributes a recent flurry of interest in the works of Dorothy Mead (1928-75) to her inclusion in the Tate Britain’s 'All Too Human' show last year.

Scottish artist Craigie Aitchison (1926-2009) painted few subjects more obsessively throughout his career than the crucifixion.

Art historian Magdalen Evans is holding a series of lectures on Women Artists of the Second World War for the Arts Society with the next date set for Harpenden, Hertfordshire, on March 20, followed by Colchester, Essex, in May and Ely, Cambridgeshire, in September.

Post-war art stored in a cupboard for “many years” by an academic institution in Leicestershire drew strong bidding for two British artists in particular at Derbyshire saleroom Hansons (20% buyer’s premium).

Women artists – historically overlooked in scholarship and undervalued on the market – have emerged more and more at auction over the last few years.

A Cardiff estate has provided a highly useful consignment to Welsh saleroom Rogers Jones (18% buyer’s premium inc VAT) with around 45 modern British paintings in all.

Dreweatts’ Modern and Contemporary art sale in Newbury on April 3 will offer a range of Modern British pictures, including a selection of St Ives School group works. However, one of the main highlights in this category is a wartime painting by John Armstrong (1893-1973) which carries an estimate of £20,000-30,000.

A 16 x 15in (42 x 38cm) linocut by Great Bardfield artist Sheila Robinson (1925-88) more than doubled its estimate to sell for £1000 at Cheffins (22.5% buyer’s premium) of Cambridge.

Sylvia Gosse (1881-1968) was perhaps the best known of the women artists who worked closely with Camden Town Group luminary Walter Sickert.

Lyon & Turnbull is holding an auction of Modern & Contemporary art, sculpture and design at The Mall Galleries in London on March 27 under the title Modern Made.

An impressive collection of 20th century British pictures will be offered at Cheffins in Cambridge on March 21 after Hertfordshire County Council took the decision to offload them.

Familiar striking shapes and bright colours retain a strong following despite a fall in demand from the 1980s-90s heyday.

Among the lots drawing keen interest at Sworders’ Modern British and 20th century sale in Essex on February 26 was a privately consigned 2ft x 2ft 8in (61 x 83cm) oil on canvas of Burmese women collecting water by Royal portraitist Gerald Kelly (1879-1972).

In the latest of our occasional series of collector interviews, we talk to Ian Harvey, 74, a retired chartered accountant who has been collecting all his adult life.