Among the highlights of last week’s Islamic and Indian art sales in London was this late Safavid portrait of a mercenary in the Persian army painted in the cosmopolitan city of Isfahan c.1680-90.

The record for a British coin has been broken again with the sale at Heritage Auctions in Dallas of an Edward VIII proof pattern £5 for $1.9m (£1.39m).

With hindsight, the boast made by the Flying Steam Company – 'To China in Twenty-Four Hours Certain' – was a tad ambitious.

A selection of 16 upcoming lots from auctions taking place around the UK.

Experiments with porcelain at the Swansea factory began in 1814 with the arrival of William Billingsley and Samuel Walker from the Nantgarw China Works.

Having postponed the sale in November and again in January, Chorley’s finally got to sell an exceptional private collection of early English porcelain in Prinknash Abbey, Gloucestershire, on March 24.

The work of French designer Fred Brouard (1944-99) is not uncommon at sales in France and the US but seldom appears at auction in the UK.

Peter Closon (c.1594-c.1662) was one of the most prolific of the so-called First Period lantern clock makers – although little is known about his life.

Although catalogued simply as ‘a 19th century Art Nouveau glass’ and estimated at just £30-50, a letter that accompanied this rare wine glass gave a clue to its origins.

This rare Bow figure was spotted by English porcelain specialists at Kingham & Orme’s (23% buyer’s premium) two-day auction of Fine and Decorative Arts.

This bust of the first American president George Washington (1732-99) is titled to the base, and signed and dated 'R Trentanove Fecc in Roma, 1827'.

The sale at Adam Partridge (20% buyer’s premium) in Macclesfield on March 18-19 included a collection of 18th century English porcelain figures offered in around 30 lots.

The Winter Antiques Sale at Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) was topped by consecutive bids of £17,000 each for two Regency white marble busts.

At 20in (50cm) long, this stylised tinplate racer and driver was the largest toy car made by the German toymaker Johann Distler.

This 3in (7.5cm) brass and ivorine fishing reel is inscribed to the face 'Ustonson & Peters, Makers to the Queen, 48 Bell Yard, Temple Bar, London'.

Two very different ceramic objects illuminated The Spring Auction at Halls (20% buyer’s premium) in Shrewsbury on March 17.

Apprenticed to John Flaxman at the turn of the 19th century, Joseph Gott (1785-1860) travelled to Rome in 1822 on a pension from Sir Thomas Lawrence.