AUCTION Round up

SPECIAL AUCTION SERVICES, NEWBURY Six 19th-century marbles sold for £1,860 (against an estimate of £80-£120) at the Berkshire auctioneer’s sale of the contents of the London home of Joan Dunk – a stalwart of Portobello Road Antique Market. A set of early 19th century ‘flats’ depicting nine classical figures sold for £1,500 – against an estimate of £250-£350.

The sought-after flats made five times their low estimate

The marbles sold for £1,850 with the rarest being the top left

LO A Am

LOCKDALES, MARTLESHAM A 1912 cigarette card of an American boxer whose success in ri lo S

in the ring sparked a race riot sold for £210, against a low estimate of £20 at the Suffolk auctioneers.

The UK-produced cigarette cards are rare in the US. It sold to a Texan

Jackson was the first African American world heavyweight bidder boxing champion. His victory over the white boxer James J. Jeffries in 1910, dubbed “the fight of the century”, sparked race riots across America.

A kit for Aurora the Mad Barber sold for £440 (against a low estimate of just £20)

The card, issued by Londonbased Cohen, Weenen & Co. as part of its famous boxers series, went to an online US bidder.

BISHOP & MILLER, STOWMARKET A pencil and wash drawing of a young girl fetched £720, against a low estimate of £90 at the Suffolk auctioneer’s recent picture sale.

The artwork by Ralph Brown (1928-2013) was titled Girl in a Blue Dress and signed and dated 1985, with hand-

The pencil drawing featured in the Summer

Exhibition of 1987

written title label, Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 1987.

Brown was better known as a sculptor who came to national prominence in the late 1950s with his largescale bronze Meat Porters, commissioned for Harlow New Town in Essex.

Madonna’s dress sold for more than

JULIAN’S AUCTIONS, LOS ANGELES A guitar owned by grunge artist Kurt Cobain set five word records when it sold for a staggering £4.84m in California. After the sale, Antique Collecting writer, and memorabilia specialist Paul Fraser, said: “It takes something special to surprise me these days. But when I saw this result I almost spat out my cornflakes. In all my years in the business, I’ve never seen the market for an artist move so quickly as Kurt Cobain’s.”

nine times its estimate of

£16,000

His guitar from the 1993 Nirvana MTV Unplugged performance set five new world records as the world’s most expensive guitar, the most expensive acoustic guitar, the world’s most expensive Martin guitar, the most expensive piece of memorabilia and the world’s most expensive Nirvana memorabilia.

At a previous sale the satin dress Madonna wore in her 1990 Vogue video sold for $179,200 (£145,000), almost nine times its original estimate.

The guitar set five world records when it sold for £4.84m

ELSTOB & ELSTOB, RIPON A collection of 41 lots of New Hall porcelain, from the collection of the late dealer Tony Allen, sold for £11,190 at the North Yorkshire auction house.

One of the stand-out pieces was a plate by Fidelle Duvivier, c.1787-90, purchased from Charnwood Antiques, which sold for a mid-estimate price of £2,400. A 1785 cream jug of ‘low Chelsea ewer’ form, purchased from Roderick Jellicoe, tripled its estimate to hammer at £900.

New Hall holds an important place in the history of English porcelain. Active between 1781 and 1835, it was a cooperative between several Staffordshire earthenware makers, who were offered the use of the Bristol porcelain licence in return for financing a factory together.

David Elstob with the Tony Allen collection of New

Hall porcelain

14 ANTIQUE COLLECTING