The recent auction organised by Nigel Ward Co reported that at their most recent auction at their Pontrilas Auction Rooms a spectacular amount of interest was experienced with a total of over 1300 buyers being registered from all corners of the world.

There was spirited bidding on-line, by commission bids, in the room and by telephone with many bidders rising at unearthly hours in their various time zones to take part in the live auction proceedings.

The previous auction rooms’ top hammer price (of £38,000 for a 17th Century World Atlas) was exceeded by a beautifully sculpted marble bust of a lady, which attained a hammer price of £52,000.

Other hammer prices raised were as follows: £6,100 for a lacquered mirror case, £3,600 & £2,800 for eastern rugs, £2,400 for a David Cox oil painting of a pastoral landscape, £2,100 for a 17th Century portrait of a lady, £1,800 for a Sam Spode oil painting of a bay horse and jockey, £1,700 for a circular vivid coloured silk table cover, £1,600 for a pair of Shagreen picture frames, £1,500 for a six half-sovereign bracelet, £1,050 for a peg-joyned refectory table, £900 for a framed plaster model of a doorway in the Alhambra Palace, £850 for a military battle dress jacket, £850 for a trio of ebonised cock-pen chairs, £850 for a set of 8 dining chairs by the makers for Howard, £800 for a pair of German leather pistol holsters, £650 for a pair of silver framed dressing mirrors, £650 each for brass framed etageres, whilst a distressed wooden trunk and its contents of old army uniforms realised £2,300 in total.

There was, of course, the usual vast array of effects to suit all tastes and budgets. Detailed results can be viewed on-line at www.nigel-ward.co.uk