Edinburgh

Private domestic demand rather than trade drives bidding at Scottish and Irish art auctions.

Alongside two key early maps of colonial North America (see News, ATG No 2422) the sale at Ramsay Cornish (20% buyer’s premium) in Edinburgh on December 7 was distinguished by five-figure bids for two rare items.

Two key early maps of colonial North America were offered for sale at Ramsay Cornish in Edinburgh on December 7.

An early watercolour by Isabel Codrington (1874-1943) depicts the Norse legend of the goddess Iduna and King Thiassi, who disguised himself as an eagle to kidnap her.

A central Edinburgh location, men wearing tartan trousers and kilts and a bagpiper greeting guests: three ingredients suggesting that Lyon & Turnbull has hosted the most Scottish of parties to celebrate 20 years since its renaissance as an auction house.

Instruction from author Fleming was thankfully not followed and first issue survives.

Some of the most striking 19th-20th century jewellery can often be found in design sales.

A Linthorpe pottery sake bottle designed for the Middlesbrough pottery by Dr Christopher Dresser has sold for a record £17,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium).

Two early maps of colonial north America come for sale at Ramsay Cornish in Edinburgh on December 7. They were discovered at the Edinburgh home of the late Dr Ann Carswell, an American born in Washington and educated at Cornell and Harvard.

A rare contrast to the Jacobite glass which has served Edinburgh auction house Lyon & Turnbull (25% buyer’s premium) so well was a large mid-18th century goblet with a wheel engraved portrait of the victor of Culloden. It was inscribed 'His Royal Highness William Duke Of Cumberland'.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that the football league in Scotland has not always been dominated by Celtic and Rangers. The last time a team outside the Old Firm won the title was Aberdeen in 1985.

More reliable today than they ever were in their lifetime, the male line of the Stuarts attracted the familiar devoted following at the annual Scottish Silver & Applied Arts sale at Lyon & Turnbull (25% buyer’s premium).

Teacher’s single-owner collection stands out as part of Modern and Contemporary art sale.

Edinburgh auction spotlights the current market for the wares of Scotland’s most famous pottery.

Of the 24 silversmiths known to have worked in the Aberdeenshire town of Banff from the 17th century until the trade died out in the mid-1800s, William Scott the Elder is the first whose name is recorded.

Lyon & Turnbull’s African & Oceanic Art & Antiquities auction in Edinburgh on October 16 includes this Apulian-Corinthian helmet from the late 5th-early 4th century BC.

A Battle of Culloden period Clan MacTavish silver inlaid basket-hilted back sword sold for £4800, just below top estimate, at the Antony Cribb (22% buyer’s premium) auction on July 30.

Edinburgh gallery Fettes Fine Art offers a painting by Scottish artist John Phillip at its local Galloway Fair this week.