Auctioneers

The hefty guarantee paid out by Sotheby’s to secure the Alfred Taubman collection meant the stakes were running high for the first and most financially crucial tranche of the four-part auction staged at Sotheby’s New York.

Many who viewed a Barkentin and Krall chalice at JS Auctions in Bodicote, Oxfordshire will have hoped to win it close to its £300-500 estimate.

As suggested by an inscription to the socle reading ‘Gallé, Expo 1900’, this ovoid pedestal vase offered by Hansons of Etwall in Derbyshire had been created in the studios of Emile Gallé (1846-1904) for the ‘Exposition Universelle de Paris’ in 1900.

A Rembrandt portrait sold in a £35m private sale negotiated by Sotheby’s will be staying in the UK after the overseas buyer withdrew their application to export the painting.

Nottingham-based John Pye Auctions are expanding into Mayfair.

Two single-owner collections of Martinware – each exceptional in their own way – will appear for sale on either side of the Atlantic this autumn.

Scientific, medical and natural history books from the library of the Royal Institution are to be sold at Christie’s on December 1.

Leading specialists will debate the use of scientific testing in Asian art at an event to coincide with Asian Art in London (November 5-14).

There was drama at the Stonepark auction rooms of Rendells near Ashburton when this Isnik fritware tile was hammered down at £155,000 at their latest sale.

A new senior management team has been appointed to take on responsibility for the group of businesses that includes Dreweatts, Baldwin’s and Mallett, ATG has learned.

A small Dame Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975) sculpture bought at a Christie’s auction by The Pier Arts Centre in Orkney has now gone on display.

Dreweatts are to offer 14 boxes from an important American collection of 18th and 19th century European gold boxes as part of a December 3 sale titled Iconic Jewels & Treasures.

An Apple-1, the technology that heralded a revolution in home computing when it was launched as Apple’s first product in 1976, is for sale via Christie’s online.

As part of their latest 20th Century & Decorative Art auction in Stansted Mountfitchet, Sworders sold this still life by the influential American photographer Irving Penn (1917-2009) for £61,000.

Christie’s have announced a new themed week of sales in New York next April.

“Button who?” When Shropshire documents consultant Ben Jones was told that an American client was considering selling the clipped signature of Button Gwinnett he reached for the search engine.

The highlight of Bonhams’ latest sale of Islamic and Indian art in London was this rare Gujarati mother-of-pearl artwork of early date and exceptional size.

London’s growing importance as a hub for Modern design – boosted with the imminent return of sales at Sotheby’s – was underlined this month with records at Phillips in Mayfair.

After viewing events in London, Derbyshire and at the Antiques for Everyone fair in Birmingham, Fellows held their much-anticipated Blue John Sale in the Jewellery Quarter last week.

Lot number one in Rogers Jones’ latest sale provided both a world record result and a house record for the Welsh auctioneers.