Print Edition

The sale of two great collections at auction – one in London, the other in New York – has highlighted the ebbs and flows of the market for early British pottery and furniture.

With the great country house contents sales of the past now largely a distant memory, single-owner collection sales have become the next-best thing.

The best Egyptian antiquities now engender much more than mere scholastic fervour but, for the most part, humbler objects remain eminently affordable.

Drawing interest from the US was a portrait of a fierce-looking Scottish laird by John Pettie (1839-93).

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

Alfies Antiques Market has paid tribute to one of its dealers, Paola Noé, who died on January 19.

This 2ft (60cm) high Charles II needlework looking glass worked with figures and fantastical beasts emblematic of the seasons was estimated at $10,000-15,000 but sold at $80,000 (£61,500) in the Vogel collection auction at Sotheby's New York.

Three lots selling for multi-estimate sums at regional auctions in the UK including a Staffordshire slipware honey pot from c.1700 that drew demand at Woolley & Wallis of Salisbury.

Billed as a private London collection, the February 5 sale at Chiswick Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) betrayed a single owner with a good eye and wide-ranging enthusiasms.

A little-known work by a prolific Newlyn School artist became the top lot of Scottish saleroom Elgin Auction Centre’s (15% buyer’s premium) February 6 sale.

Late 18th-century works for children combine juvenile diversion with moral instruction.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from February 26-March 9, 2019.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

John Bedford of William Bedford was one of the major dealers in antique furniture in London in the 1970s and for the next 35 years dominated his corner of the trade.

Lamps in south London form a stylish and popular part of the mid-century collecting field.

Letters on the sails of the vessels seen on the title-page of Pedro de Syria’s Arte de la Verdadera Navegacion, published in Valencia in 1602, are a reminder that it was Columbus’ voyage in Spanish service just over a hundred years earlier that led to the ‘discovery’ of the Americas.

Richard P Feynman (1918-88), recognised as a genius in the field of mathematical physics and once described as ‘the most original mind of his generation’, was a star turn in a November 30 sale at Sotheby’s New York (25/20/12.9% buyer’s premium).

Lawrences of Crewkerne has just announced, with great sadness, the unexpected death of Jeff Day, the auction house’s militaria specialist.

The models used in 17th century ceramics were typically derived from contemporary metalwork – and occasionally vice versa.

This set of English painted sycamore trenchers were a wedding gift to Roger Simpson and his bride Mary in 1625 from their cousin. Each plate has an inscription that includes either the bride’s or groom’s name alongside verses about love, sex and marriage.