The Art & Design Sales have continued to assert their popularity in 2024, with strong prices and sale rates achieved in all sales throughout the year.
16/12/2024 Collectors' Items, Paintings, Drawings & Prints, Sculpture & Works of Art
The Art & Design Sales have continued to assert their popularity in 2024, with strong prices and sale rates achieved in all sales throughout the year.
The clear standout result, however, was the sale of an incredibly rare electroplated teapot designed by Christopher Dresser in circa 1879 (pictured below). Its avant garde design and scarcity saw a fierce telephone battle ensue, bypassing the pre-sale estimate of £12,000-18,000, eventually selling for a hammer price of £63,000!
Other notable results in the year included a bronze bust of Count Basie by Eduardo Paolozzi which featured in the February sale. The wonderfully deconstructed human face being pushed towards the Rubicon of unrecognisability drew bidders from around the globe, before selling to a private collector in London for a hammer price of £24,000. In the same sale, we also saw another rather impressionistically modelled bronze entitled La Retour by Chana Orloff, double its mid-estimate, making £8,000 on the day.
There was also a strong start to the year for the 20th century paintings department, which forms part of the Art & Design auctions, with a £16,000 hammer price for a sketch of Primrose Hill by Frank Auerbach. Sadly, 2024 would be the year for which the artworld would lose one of the most influential and important artists of the 20th century, with the death of Auerbach in November. The same sale saw £19,000 realised for a beautiful watercolour of a cat which was amongst one the highest prices achieved at auction for this subject matter.
Primrose Hill by Frank Auerbach (1931-2024)
This sector remains extremely strong, and each auction saw an increase in new buyers. The ever-increasing popularity for Indian art was evident in the May sale, which included a painting by Jamini Roy (1887 – 1972). Titled Blue Nude, fierce bidding saw it sell for £5,500, whilst the October sale established two records for female artists - Elisabeth Vellacott’s Pebble Beach; Rocks and Paddlers, realised £19,000, whilst a still by Catherine Giles sold for £5,500.
Elisabeth Vellacott’s Pebble Beach; Rocks and Paddlers
The Art & Design Sales also regularly represent some of the last century’s finest artisan silversmiths, and we were pleased to sell a number of lots by Omar Ramsden over the past year, including a super Arts & Crafts silver and enamel cigarette casket for £5,500 (pictured below) and a near set of twelve silver plates for £7,500.
Glass has also performed well this year, with a vibrant mid-century ‘Oriente’ vase by Dino Martens for Aureliano Toso kicking the year off at £4,400. In the final sale of the year, we offered a pate de verre glass tazza by Gabriel Argy-Rousseau, the result of a routine valuation day at Clifton House, which was eventually knocked down to an Italian bidder for £3,400.
We ended the year with one of the Art & Design Sales strongest to date. In addition to Christopher Dresser’s electroplate teapot, some incredible prices were realised including £50,000 for John Craxton’s ‘A Fisherman’, whilst Patrick Haron’s ‘Five Reds, Four Discs’ sold for £48,000, and £36,000 was achieved for two still lifes by Eliot Hodgkin.