UK

Tennants’ (20% buyer’s premium) latest sale of Modern and Contemporary art generated some confident bidding both online and in the room, taking in limited-edition prints by famous names.

A round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days, including news of a crackdown on antique firearms and the recovery of stolen books.

Art and antiques businesses in England are more prepared for trading through this new lockdown having gained experience last time around.

In 1793, well in advance of the Slave Trade Act (1807) and the Slavery Abolition Act (1833), 275 British men, women and children attempted to settle an uninhabited island off the coast of Sierra Leone.

Two pieces by ‘Glasgow Four’ artists Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) and Frances Macdonald McNair (1873-1921) topped Lyon & Turnbull’s Decorative Arts: Design since 1860 auction on November 2-3.

The last known drawn self-portrait of Modern British artist Stanley Spencer (1891-1959) has been acquired by the Stanley Spencer Gallery in Cookham.

Christie’s has axed its stand-alone sales of topographical pictures and will incorporate the specialist department into the 19th century picture department based in London. Consignments in this area will now be offered in auctions in the wider category.

Shifting Covid-19 regulations have complicated the Irish and Scottish art markets but online and phone bidding has helped to keep results relatively robust

Principal attraction in a Crewkerne book sale at Lawrences (25% buyers premium) was the Browning family archive that featured as Pick of the Week in ATG No 2459, but three other items from that 370 lot sale are noted here.

The Fine Wine & Whisky sale at Tennants on December 12 features this Macallan-Glenlivet 1937 35-year-old Pure Highland Malt Scotch Whisky.

Henry Moore’s lithograph 'Reclining Woman' is among the highlights in the Christmas exhibition at Thompson’s Gallery of Aldeburgh, Suffolk.

Estimated at £200-300 in a Kent sale, a military commission that bears the signature of King George III and is additionally signed and endorsed by William Pitt the Elder, Britain’s prime minister at the time of the Seven Years War, sold online instead for £7500.

Two Scottish coastal pictures attracted multiple bidders at Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) latest Art & Design sale.

A Chateau De Pomès Pédérère Armagnac distilled in 1950 is estimated at £200-300 at McTear’s Rare & Fine Whisky Auction on December 16.

Ewbank’s Fine Wines & Spirits auction in Surrey on December 17 includes this bottle of Bas Armagnac Baron de Sigognac 1951.

Christie’s holds its Finest and Rarest Wines and Spirits sale in London on December 11.