* The top lot of the August 15 & 16 sale of marine, China trade, and sporting art at Northeast Auctions in Portsmouth, New Hampshire was Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait’s A Check-Keep 
Your Distance that sold for $381,000 (estimate $100,000-200,000). Other top lots were a 19th-century carved figurehead of a woman attributed to John Rogerson that sold for $183,000 (estimate $120,000-180,000), a carved and painted blackduck decoy by A. Elmer Crowell that sold for $105,300 missing its estimate of $150,000-250,000, and an 18th-century Chinese export porcelain goose-form soup tureen that sold for $93,600 (estimate $80,000-120,000).
* The top lot of the August 18 Scottish sale at Bonhams in Edinburgh was Thomas Bromley Blacklock’s Fisher Girls that sold for £45,600 (estimate £10,000-15,000). Other top lots were Sir Edwin Landseer’s Landscape with Dunrobin Castle that sold for £42,000 (estimate £40,000-60,000), and James McIntosh Patrick’s Castle Stalker that sold for £26,400 (estimate £15,000-20,000).
* On August 19 the top lot of Doyle New York home sale was a 130-piece porcelain dinner service by Herend that sold for $6,250 (estimate $2,500-3,500). Other top sales were a mirror console that sold for $4,375 (estimate $1,000-1,500), and a pair of Victorian tufted sofas that sold for $3,500 (estimate $600-900).
Image: Soup tureen and cover, Chinese export, c. 1760-80. Courtesy of Northeast Auctions.
