The Silly Season brings out the funny and bizarre, but also a reminder of the best in game painting

Jul 14, 2025

This time of year is what the media call the Silly Season, traditionally a period when news is thin on the ground and reporters will file copy on bizarre tales that wouldn’t normally make it into print. They do this because many newspapers and news websites are working on skeleton staff during the holidays and are under more pressure to fill the space available. It’s an ideal time to look out for articles on the weird and wonderful things that have sold at auction.

I recently trawled through the archives with this in mind and here are a few of things I came up with:

• William Shatner’s kidney stone. That’s right, in 2006 the Starship Enterprise’s former Captain Kirk raised $25,000 for charity with this tasteless offering.
• A grandmother. Ten-year-old Zoe Pemberton put her grandma, Marion Goodall, up for auction on eBay in 2010. The site shut the sale down when the price reached £20,000.
• Lee Harvey Oswald’s coffin. After JFK’s assassin was exhumed in 1981 to check that a body double had not been buried in his place, he was reburied in a new coffin. The original one fetched nearly $90,000.
• New Zealand. In 2006 an Australian man set a starting pricing of one Australian cent for the country. eBay also closed down this sale… when bidding reached Aus$3,000.

While it may be the Silly Season, it is also the approach of the Grouse Season. This is an area of pheasant shoots, and while those ready to take aim will have to wait until October 1 for that, August 12 is the start of the Red Grouse season.

While blasting birds out of the sky has never been my passion, the paintings of game birds by Archibald Thorburn are. His depictions of pheasant, grouse and ptarmigan are pre-eminent among British bird painters of the past century, as prices at auction will confirm. A decent watercolour of any of these birds in a moorland setting will have no problem encouraging bids up to the £25,000 mark.

Collectors have long taken aim at Thorburn, but I suppose he really came into his own when the popularity of shooting spread from the landed gentry to commercial shoots in the 1980s.

Born the son of a miniaturist painter who worked for Queen Victoria near Edinburgh in 1860, Thorburn had little to no formal training except for a brief stint at art school in St John’s Wood. What really set him on the road to his life’s work was a stroke of luck. In 1887 when the Dutch artist J.G. Keulemans fell ill, Thorburn took over the commission from Lord Lilford of Northampton to complete the illustrations for the seven-volume Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Islands. By the time he finished his career had taken flight.

Tastes and technology may change, but a good eye will mean success in the long term at auction

Jun 17, 2025

I have just completed a Q&A for a trade magazine, and it made me think, once again, of how the public view not just auctions but the wider art and antiques trade. While there are still a few people running cobweb-ridden, cluttered shops in country backwaters, where the stock seems to have been there from new, don’t make the mistake of thinking that auction houses and dealers are still living in the Dark Ages.

The auction process is both more complicated and exciting than retail, and that means we must have technology that is able to do a lot more than just complete a customer’s order online.

Live bidding, previewing lots for sale with multiple images, registering bidders from dozens of different countries, fulfilling our obligations under due diligence and other regulations means we must be at the top of our game all the time.

I’m delighted to say that this is as much a young man and woman’s game these days.

The excitement of buying and selling, collecting and doing deals knows no barrier when it comes to age or generation. It’s just the things that we choose to trade in that change over the years.

Thinking about this, it never ceases to amaze me how what are, frankly, in my opinion a series of unattractive daubs flung together in the name of Contemporary art can make millions at auction when highly accomplished and rather beautiful Victorian landscapes can be had for buttons.

I suppose that fashions change and, with them, tastes. Don’t get me wrong, I think a great deal of Modern and Contemporary art has a lot to offer, but it is also rife with mountebanks. However, the flipside of what has been a rather subdued market for late Victorian and Edwardian painting is that you can pick up stunning art for very little indeed.

Just browsing through one of the online auction platforms the other day, I worked out that, with a fair wind behind me, I could fill a whole wall with stunning Victorian and Edwardian watercolours for less than £2,000. Some of the pictures looked a bit tired, but closer inspection revealed that they simply needed a new mount and frame, and at these prices this was very much a realistic option.

I have no idea whether art like this will enjoy a renaissance in years to come – although it certainly deserves to – but those cherry picking now will be in the best position to capitalise if it does. And if prices remain in the doldrums, well they will have a fantastic selection of art gracing their walls, which they will never tire of.

June and beyond are full of promise for sports fans, art and antiques events… and auctions

May 19, 2025

June is the highlight of the year for the British art market, with dealers and collectors flying in from all over the world to take part in art and antiques fairs and auctions, and innumerable gallery shows also open.

While all this activity is largely based in London, all sorts of things worth visiting are going on outside the capital too.

You’ll never go wrong with a visit to Petworth – the Antiques Capital of the South, as it is known – and you can follow this up with tickets for the Petworth Summer Festival in July.

While schools and universities start to celebrate the end of exams and wind down for the summer, it will be business as usual across the regions auction rooms, and one of the best times of year to look for something special, with everyone else distracted.

I’ll be holding at least four cracking auctions a month, including specialist sales in Oriental works, fine antiques and paintings, so there’s bound to be something in there for you somewhere.

Meanwhile, think about the sporting occasions from May to July that inspire us – and themed sales: the F.A. Cup Final, the Derby, Royal Ascot, The British Lions tour, Wimbledon, the British Grand Prix, and, of course, our own Goodwood Festival of Speed. And this list doesn’t even begin to cover August, which will see The Hundred, cricket’s explosive festival where every ball counts, and the Women’s Rugby World Cup.

Big money is to be had when it comes to anything collectable directly associated with global sporting superstars. Lionel Messi’s six World Cup match-worn shirts from 2022, took $7.8 million at auction in December 2023, while Diego Maradona’s Hand of God jersey sold for $9.3 million in 2022. Tennis memorabilia linked to Nadal and Federer is already reaching the $100,000 mark – so start collecting Sinner and Alcaraz shirts and racquets now if you can manage to get your hands on them courtside.

It promises to be a wonderful summer!

What to look out for in 2025 – how history plays its part in the wonderful field of collecting

Dec 24, 2024

At this time of year, collectors’ minds turn to special anniversaries that fall in the coming 12 months that might help boost a particular field of interest – and prices. So, what have we got to look forward to in 2025?

To start with, January 8 would have been the 90th birthday of Elvis Presley, one of the most sought-after figures in the history of music when it comes to collectables. It’s amazing to think that Elvis, who died in August 1977 at the age of 42, has now been dead for longer than he lived.

Just under a month later, on February 6, would have been the 80th birthday of the king of Reggae, Bob Marley, who succumbed to cancer aged just 36 in 1981.

Will there be a boost to items relating to Winston Churchill, who died 60 years ago on January 24? And what about a retrospective for the wonderful March Chagall, who passed on March 28, 1985, 40 years ago, aged 97? Pilgrims still visit his grave in the beautiful town of St Paul de Vence to lay a stone on his tomb.

March 27 is also a day to remember: 400 years since the death of King James I and the accession of King Charles I to the throne.

While Hitler and Pol Pot both have significant anniversaries, they are unlikely to troubles the rostrum, but December 16 marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Jane Austen, surely a cause for celebration, special events and maybe even a reappearance at auction of rare first editions.

Making his first appearance eight months before Austen on April 23, and so also celebrating a 250th birthday, will be the man who is arguably England’s pre-eminent artist, J.M.W. Turner.

On the sporting front, 2025 will be 50 years since the inaugural Cricket World Cup, which began in the UK on June 7, 1975.

Hollywood is always a rich source for collectors, so expect to see raised interest in all things Spielberg as Jaws marks its 50th year. And can you believe that the Disney classic Lady and The Tramp will turn 70?

For me, the most important anniversary to look out for falls on September 27: 200 years since the first service of locomotive-hauled passenger trains opened between Stockton and Darlington – an innovation that changed the world. Few enthusiasts are as dedicated to their field as those interested in trains. Look out for Hornby, Bassett-Lowke, Märklin and the rest at auction when autumn comes.