LYON & Turnbull, the fine art auctioneer, has hailed record sales of more than £26 million, an 88 per cent hike on pre-pandemic totals.
It comes as it realised several world records for artworks and artefacts across a range of its 25 categories, it said.
The firm moved to live online auctions at the start of the pandemic, which resulted in a 15% rise in the number of new buyers since 2020, it said.
In May, a French Gothic casket from Aberdeenshire achieved a world record at £1.4m, the firm added.
Five paintings by Scottish Colourist Samuel John Peploe sold for more than £1m.
Gavin Strang, of Lyon & Turnbull, said: “This year (2022) has already got off to a flying start with the sale of a letter bearing Mary Queen of Scots’ handwriting making, not only news around the world, but £32,500, more than double the asking price (£14,000).”
Gavin Strang, of Lyon & Turnbull, hailed the results.
Lyon & Turnbull, established in Edinburgh in 1826, holds around 42 auctions a year across the UK. During 2021 the average lot values across all categories increased by 75%.
Also in 2021, a sixteenth century Italian maiolica dish, made in the city of Urbino and depicting a Biblical scene, was one of the items found tucked away in a drawer by one of Lyon & Turnbull’s experts as part of its sale of the contents of Lowood House in Melrose on the banks of the River Tweed.
It sold for £1.3m after bidding started at £80,000. The price marked another world record for this type of early, elaborate pottery, the firm said.
Theodora Burrell, European ceramics specialist, with the rare dish. Image by Gary Doak.
The amount achieved for a rare drawing by Dame Barbara Hepworth was also unprecedented for a work by the renowned mid-20th century artist Lyon & Turnbull said.
It was given as a wedding present to her fellow artist and friend Wilhelmina Barns-Graham in 1949 when she married the poet David Lewis.
Auctioned on behalf of the Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust, the “double nude” drawing, Figure and Mirror, sold for nearly £500,000 (£471,000) in autumn 2021.
Specialists Philip Smith and Charlotte Riordan with Figure and Mirror.