An Auctioned Packed April...

Well we really sprung into spring with our special April auctions. On top of the usual ‘3 days of auction’, McTear’s had another 3 unique auctions featuring various pieces of Victorian, Edwardian & Scottish Jewellery, Miniature Spirits and works of art. 

All taking place on the 17th of April, The Miniature Spirits Auction kicked off the day of auctions at 10.30am. This auction included 103 pieces of Miniature bottles of Whisky, Gin, Vodka, Rum and Port, with most lots meeting their estimation and a few exceeding them. An example of this would be this Whisky Miniature Ceramic Selection which has some well known items such as a 12 year old Springbank and a 21 year old Glenfiddich. After an estimate of £30 - £50, the miniatures went under the hammer for £120.


Lot 43

Later on in the day we had 300 stunning lots of Victorian, Edwardian & Scottish Jewellery, with prices ranging from £30 - £8000. Again, some of the lots not only met the expectations held, but also surpassed them, like this beautiful Edwardian Opal and Diamond set clover brooch. After an estimation of £150, this ended up going for a whopping £1000.

Lot 202

The last auction of the day featured some out of the ordinary pieces of ceramic, works of art and jewellery. With various Art Deco pieces and even a Mulberry handbag this was a very enticing auction to be at. One particular piece that grabbed the attentions of bidders was this Ceiling lamp in the style of W.A.S Benson. After an estimated hammer price of £150 this unusual lamp sold for a fantastic £1100. 

Lot 537

To see what other exciting items went under the hammer have a look here.

March at McTear's

McTear’s have started off March well with the special auctions concluding yesterday with The Scottish Contemporary Art auction that had a vast selection of unique and eye catching pieces – perfect way to end a successful week of interesting and exciting auctions.

The auctions commenced on Tuesday with rare and collectable objects from Asia including China, Japan and India going under the hammer in The Asian Works of Art Auction. After an estimation of just £100 - £200, this stunning Chinese Cloisonne Censer sold for a whopping £2800! 

Lot 175 

Bidders would also not be struggling to tell the time on Tuesday with our auction of clocks and timepieces taking place. Interest was high in this auction and this Fine George III Ebonised Bracket Clock sold for a fantastic £8000 after an estimation of just £2000. 

Lot 296

For the whisky enthusiast among you we had our ever popular Rare and Collectable Whisky, Wine and Port Auction that saw many enticing bottles go under the hammer. In particular, this beautiful 25 year old Macallan in a crystal decanter reached £1900 in the auction.

Lot 905

One for the ladies in our Jewellery Auction is this glistening unmounted diamond (2.12 carats) that sold for £6900... There will be one lucky person receiving this! 

Lot 1105

The Scottish Contemporary Art Auction brought the auctions to an end nicely with lots of attractive lots going under the hammer. Fitting for a Sunday, this Graham McKean 'Sunday Afternoon' pastel on paper sold for £260. 

This is just a few of what went under the hammer in last weeks special auctions. To see other auctions, lots and the hammer prices, have a look at our website. 

Our next special auctions will be 8th - 10th of April. 

Brian Looks Back at 2013...

In advance of the first Auction Events Preview of 2014 this Friday, this month's 'From The Rostrum' feature from director Brian Clements looks back briefly at last year's events.

On the back of a year that saw McTear's named as Britain's favourite auction house, a look back to 2013 brings to mind numerous highlights, with one auction specifically standing out. The Terry Howson Auction, a sale of the personal collection of Peter Howson sketches belonging to the former wife of the celebrated Glasgow artist, saw a record attendance at the 'white glove' (every lot sold!) auction, with the proceeds helping greatly towards the purchase of a property for Terry and Peter’s daughter, Lucie.

The internet continues to attract an ever increasing international audience, with the last twelve months seeing considerably more sold online to overseas buyers than ever before. Additionally,

we were proud forerunners of 'timed bidding' auctions for The-Saleroom.com, a state of the art and innovative facility that allows an efficient auction style for collections and individual objects,

often too bulky, numerous or awkward to be sold in a conventional way.

We cannot start this year off without mention of our auctioneer, Natasha Gemini Raskin, and her new found ‘celebrity’ status! Snapped up as an onscreen expert by BBC'S Bargain Hunt late last year, Natasha has already shown, with an abundance of natural charisma, that auctions are great entertainment all round. In the impending battles of red versus blue, we hope that she will record more wins than losses in this year's busy filming schedule. C’mon Gemini!!

Lastly, a huge thank you to everyone who has purchased this auction catalogue, once again every penny raised through catalogue sales goes to McTear's chosen charity, this month The Little Sisters of The Poor in Greenock. We are continuing our support of local charities this year and hope that we can exceed last year's total raised. In 2013 McTear's staff participated in sponsored events, raffles, auctions and other fundraisers, helping to raise well over £100,000 for charities throughout Scotland.

Don't forget to purchase a charity raffle ticket from the office, up for grabs this month is an iPad2 tablet.

Best wishes to everyone for a happy, successful and peaceful 2014.

Largest bottle of single malt in the world!

In our Rare and Collectable Whisky, Wine and Port auction that took place last week we were extremely fortunate to have this Tomintoul 14 year old 105.3L bottle of single malt go under the hammer - the largest in the world!


Lot 832: Tomintoul Single Malt Whisky

For the size of the bottle it was no surprise that it was estimated to go for at least £100,000, but with 105.3 Litres of single malt whisky it is definitely worth it. Created by The Clockhouse Restaurant and The Whisky Castle in Timontoul, it gained accreditation from The Guinness World Records for being the largest bottle of Single Malt in the world in 2009.



The bottle was on display at The Whisky Experience in Edinburgh, standing at 4ft 9ins it took 14 people to fill and close it, according to the BBC.

This video, sourced from YouTube, shows how the massive whisky bottle was filled.

Sadly the bottle never reached its estimate and has been returned to its owner. Steven McGinty, our whisky valuer commented: "It was unique but I'm not going to say I was disappointed because it will earn what the owners wanted under different circumstances. Today just wasn't the day when somebody felt inclined to bid for it." (The Herald)

For more auction results have a look on our website.

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The Lord Provost's lunch in aid of the STV Appeal!

Who was lucky enough to be at the Lord Provost's lunch at Glasgow City Chambers this weekend?

Another event to fundraise money for The STV Appeal 2013 took place this weekend with great success raising £26,000 for the appeal. Our Brian from McTear's was there on the day helping out with the gavel. Over £2000 was paid for a Gerard Burns painting and £500 for a tour of STV with Sean Batty.



All in all it was a fantastic afternoon and with The STV Appeal 2013's live show happening this Friday it was another great contribution and fundraising event for the cause.

Get ready to bid once again...

5 weeks have nearly past and once again McTear's are busy getting ready for next week's dedicated auctions.

Kicking off our 3 days will be the Asian Works of Art auction with ceramics, metalwork and furniture dedicated to rare and collectable objects from Asia including China, Japan and India. An example of one of these fine pieces is this beautiful Japanese Sumo Tegata from the 1981 sumo league, featuring hand prints and signatures of Kurohimeyama, Takamiyama and Chiyonofuji.


Lot 125 Estimate: £1500- £1600

McTear's will then give you the chance to bid on some fantastic items in our clocks, musical and scientific instruments auction including long case clocks, telescopes, violins and more. This unique and eye-catching Junghans Spelter mantel clock is just an example of what's to come in this auction.


Lot 349 Estimate: £120-£180

As with every block of dedicated auctions, we will be hosting our Rare & Collectable Whisky, Wine and Port auction with roughly 500 lots going under the hammer. It's hard to single out specific lots in this auction as there is such a variety, however this one caught our eye. Highland Park1958 Singal Island Malt Whisky (700ml and 44% volume) with decanter and commemorative book in wooden box is set to go under the hammer for an estimate of £800-£1000.


Lot 700 Estimate: £800-£100

Whether you want to treat yourself or someone else we have the auction for you. McTear's Fine Jewellery auction will give you the chance to bid on approximately 300 lots beautiful jewellery. For example this stunning ring would be a fantastic gift with Christmas coming up. The unusual Pearl and Diamond dress ring set with a row of graduated diamonds, flanked by two spherical pearls (size P)is estimated to go for £400-£600.


Lot 1227 Estimate: £400-£600

This is just a small selection of what we have coming up next week in our auctions. Starting on Tuesday the 8th and finishing on the 13th of October with The Scottish Contemporary Art auction, it's a week of auctions not to be missed.

Asian Works of Art - Tuesday 8th October 10.30am

Clocks, Musical & Scientific Instruments - Tuesday 8th October 6pm

Furniture, Works of Art & Collectables - Tuesday 8th October 7pm

Rare & Collectable Whisky, Wine & Port - Wednesday 9th October 10.30am

Watches & Coins - Wednesday 9th October 5pm

Fine Jewellery - Wednesday 9th October 6pm

The British & International Pictures Auction - Thursday 10th October 6pm

The Scottish Contemporary Art Auction (Sunday) - Sunday 13th October 2pm

Exceedingly Good Auctions at McTear's

We are slipping in to September with a successful string of auctions to start the month. McTear's held a number of special auctions at the beginning of the month, which showed numerous Lots exceeding their estimated prices due to the keen interest of our eager bidders.

Below we have some particular highlights of Lots where bidders showed their keen interest in certain items;

This Lot 1717 canvas of 'Returning Home' in the Scottish Pictures Auction held on 5th September 2013 was painted by Tom Scott (1854-1927), a Scottish artist. Tom Scott is best known for his watercolours of Selkirk and the Scottish Borders, a few examples of his oil paintings have appeared at auction over the past 30 years and others are known to be in notable private collections. This early work is signed 'T Scott', a slight variation from his usual 'Tom Scott' and is housed in an outstanding Barbizon frame which reflects the style of the work. This beautiful canvas was estimated at £1000-£2000, however this was exceeded by £200, to £2200 by a keen bidder who now hosts the Scottish artwork in his home.


Lot 1717

Next up, we had Lot 1313. This lucky Lot exceeded it's estimate by £190. It is a continental judgendstil silver enamel pendant decorated with pink enamel daisies within a foliate design, having mirrors in the interior. Estimated at £100-£150, the unique pendant sold for £340.


Lot 1313

The Watches and Coins auction on 4th September showed numerous generous hammer prices... namely Lot 1019, for the 18 carat gold pocket watch with white enamel dial. This pocket watch was estimated at £400-£600, but the special accessory gained strong interest with the final hammer price being over double the estimate- £1300!


Lot 1019

A special mention also goes to Lot 603. This Macallan 1946 Select Reserve Single Speyside malt Scotch whisky was auctioned in the Rare & Collectable Whisky, Wine and Port auction on Wednesday 4th September. This single malt has been aged for 52 years and came in a wooden presentation box. There is no doubt that this is one of our most competitive auctions for the fine connoisseurs out there. This Lot was estimated at £2800-£3200, but the winning connoisseur paid £800 above the estimate- a hammer price of £4000 ... ready for a very special occasion!


Lot 603

Have a look at some of the other auction results on our website.

Do you feel inspired to get some exceedingly good auction results? Read up on How to Sell at Auction and try using TextIt or What's It Worth to find out if you have something worth bringing to auction.

Keep an eye on our next upcoming auctions here.

Prohibition Era Special Old Reserve...

What a great few days of auctions we had in June and we are now busy getting ready for our July auctions.

In our Whisky auction in particular we have this Prohibition Era Special Old Reserve. This was bottled by The American Medicinal Spirits company as a way around the prohibition era laws regarding alcohol. Will be coming up in our 31st July Whisky auction.



Keep an eye on our website for information and online catalogues for our other auctions happening at the end of the month.

Like us on Facebook, Follow us on Twitter and visit our website to keep up to date with what McTear's are up to.

Natasha Joins Bargain Hunt!

We are delighted to announce that our very own Natasha Raskin is joining the BBC Bargain Hunt experts team, filming for the first time this Sunday at the Great Wetherby Antiques Fair.



Good luck Natasha!

Visit our Website, Like us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter to keep up to date with what is happening at McTear's Auctioneers.

'The Terry Howson Collection'

The Terry Howson Auction was definitely one not to be missed. The sale that took place yesterday, Sunday 28th April, was extremely successful with the paintings, drawings and sketches by Peter Howson reaching £202,000.

With the auction room being full to the brim it was sure to be an exciting and competitive sale with each lot causing great interest. The Peter Howson drawings of David Bowie on their own sold for £34,900 with the top price reached being £9500, lot 318:


Lot 318

Other lots that went under the hammer for fantastic prices include lot 56, 64 and 200.


Lot 56: Sold for £2400 after an estimation of £200-£500


Lot 64: Sold for £2800 after an estimation of £200-£500


Lot 200: Sold for £2300 after an estimation of £200-£500

There are many other interesting lots to be seen on our website.

Make sure you Follow us on Twitter and Like us on Facebook to keep up to date with what we are doing.

Peter Howson at McTear's

Peter Howson OBE, one of Britain’s most renowned artist’s, and his former wife are to sell 390 fantastic pieces from the personal collection he gave to her later this month.

McTear’s have been busy getting organised for this sale, with the art world focusing on Glasgow after the news that the single largest sale of works from internationally acclaimed Scottish artist Peter Howson is coming to town.

The 390 works that are to go under the hammer, including paintings, drawings and sketches, is a collection of a diverse mix of Howson’s work. In the collection will be pieces from every significant period of Howson’s career which are being put up for sale by Terry to raise money to help look after their daughter Lucie, who suffers from Aspergers syndrome.



The eclectic collection will include many of his sought after pieces including all ten original drawings of pop icon David Bowie which are valued between £1000 and £2000. It will also include rare sketches of Madonna and a number of extremely early drawings that he did of his teachers at primary school.

The 390 paintings, drawings and sketches, which belong to the artist’s former wife Terry Howson, will go on sale - with no reserve prices - at McTear’s Peter Howson OBE – The Terry Howson Collection on Sunday, 28th April.


Lot 310:'The Man Who Fell To Earth' (The First Of The David Bowie Drawings)


Lot 121:THE DIARY SKETCHES * PETER HOWSON OBE 'Portrait Of Madonna'

The sale will take place at McTear’s Auctioneers, Meiklewood Gate, Glasgow, on Sunday, 28th April at 2pm.

To read more on this story to see what both Terry and Peter have to say on this auction, have a look here.

April Highlights...

Next week we have our April special auctions running from the Tuesday through to the Sunday. 

As with any monthly special auctions, we will be having our Rare & Collectable Whisky, Wine & Port auction on Wednesday at 10.30am that will feature a selection of whiskies, cognac and port from all major distilleries and beyond...

Our intern David did a fantastic job in front of the camera! Have a watch as he talks us through what we have to look forward to in next weeks auction...

For more information on this auction and our other exciting ones happening next week have a look here.  

To keep up to date with what McTears are up to, like us on Facebook, Follow us on Twitter or visit our Website. 

Pottery by Harris Davis

With our successful February auctions not long past, it's time to look at what we have coming up in March.

In particular we have the British & Continental Ceramics & Glass, Silver & Plate auction on the 12th of March that we are fortunate enough to be auctioning various pieces of pottery by Harry Davis. 

This stunning Royal Worcester jar painted by Harry Davis (one of several Worcester pieces already in) has come in for the Ceramics auction on 12 March. It is estimated to sell for over £2000.

Harry Davis, who was born in 1910, was an English potter who was educated in both Switzerland and England. He furthered his education at the Bournemouth School of Art where unfortunately the pottery class was full. This never stopped Harry though. He worked away for hours in the pottery room outwith school hours where he created numerous pots that grabbed the attention of many, especially the headmaster. He was then sent to work as a decorator at Broadstone Potters near Poole where he showed interest in all aspects of the art. Here he enhanced and improved his skills needed at a potters wheel.

After his early experiences he went on to work for Bernard and David Leach at the Leach Pottery in St Ives, Cornwall where he later met his wife. After this he went on to become head of the Art School at Achimota College in Ghana where he looked into the feasibility of manufacturing tiles, bricks and pots.

After travelling for a while with his wife, May, he returned to England in 1946 and they started up "Crowan Pottery", near Praze in Cornwall, producing domestic ware. Crowan pots became well-known for their fine appearance and strength and even though the couple managed the flourishing pottery for 16 years, they still wanted more. They chose to emigrate to New Zealand in 1962 where they founded the “Crewenna Pottery”.

However, they soon got restless here resulting in Harry jetting off to Peru in 1972 where they spent eight years of their life building a pottery at Izcuchaca. In 1979 May returned to New Zealand and Harry, in poor health, shortly after. Sadly he passed away at "Crewenna" in 1986.

His pottery are all unique and beautiful pieces that are sure to be snapped up quickly when they go under the hammer.

It's set to be a good auction so we hope to see you there.

Visit our Website, Like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter to keep up to date with whats happening.

Pottery from Moorcroft

February's special auctions will see a number of exciting items being auctioned with William Moorcroft's pottery being the highlights in the British & Continental Ceramics, Silver & Glass auction on Tuesday the 5th at 10.30am.

Born in Burslem, Staffordshire, William Moorcroft was a well-known English potter, who, after studying art at Burslem, London and Paris, experimented with his own designs, creating Aurelian Ware. This particular pottery was partially decorated with transfers and painted by hand. He was employed by James Macintyre & Co. Ltd who put Moorcroft in control of the company's art pottery studio after 1 year.

His first innovative design was the Florian Ware. He succeeded in developing highly lustred glazes and used oriental shapes and decorations which led him to develop this award winning range that boasts a radiance of colour with heavy slip and a translucent glaze. A lot of Moorcrofts pottery was sold through Liberty & Co and Tiffany in New York

Following on with his success and the closure of his studio in Macintyre & Co. Ltd, Moorcroft set up his own factory at Cobridge in 1913 and the business thrived. His reputation was further enhanced when Queen Mary made him "Potter to the Queen," which was stamped on the pottery, giving it a royal warranty. 

We are extremely lucky to have the following Moorcroft 'hot lots' going under the hammer in our British & Continental Ceramics, Silver & Glass auction.

Lot 150: estimate £1500-2000.

The colours are stunning on this large Moorcroft ‘Moonlit Blue’ pattern Baluster Vase … circa 1920, with impressed marks and signed in green to the base, 27.5cm high.

Lot 149: estimate £1500-2000.

This Moorcroft for Macintyre Florian Ware three handle vase with tube-lined designs painted in shades of blue, green, and pink on a cream ground with poppies and forget-me-nots, 25cm high is one not to be missed in the upcoming auction.

 For more information, visit our website, Like us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter.

Shine Like a Diamond...

Earlier this week, a dazzling diamond fetched a record breaking £13.5m at Christie's semi-annual jewellery sale in Geneva. 

This flawless diamond from India’s mythical Golconda mines, that once belonged to Archduke Joseph August of Austria (1872-1962),  was snapped up by an anonymous buyer at an auction on Tuesday night.

With the value of the diamond increasing, the unique, rare, colourless stone – weighing 76 carats – obtained over double the price that was paid for it roughly two decades ago, sold by an American jeweler Black, Starr & Frost. It surfaced at auction in 1961 and again at Christie's in November 1993, netting £4m at the time and has subsequently been sold on again for over 3 times the price paid in 1993.

François Curiel, director of the international jewellery department at Christie’s described the sale as being ‘flabbergasting’ and although the market is experiencing a slight decline, the diamond managed to fetch ‘a world record price per carat for a colourless diamond’.

In a sale that overall reached a ‘glittering’ £50m, the alluring diamond was the ‘VIP’ out of the 290 lots that were sold.

Dating back to the 4th century B.C, India was one of the first countries to mine the gem, with their diamonds being cherished for their size and beauty, especially the stones from Golconda. "Diamonds of Golconda" stones are rare and famous with the exact source of the so-called "lost mines of Golconda" being unknown.

Here is another fabulous diamond. The Darya-i-Nur was a rare blue-diamond (186 carats), which was owned by the last Great Mughal Emperor of Persia, Aurangzeb, until it was stolen from his heirs during the 'sack of Delhi' in 1739. 

Darya-i-Nur "Sea of Light"

For information on McTear's dedicated sales that are occurring at the end of this month have a look on our website.

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