Decorative Art

From the very beginning, the Meissen factory sought close trade relations with the Augsburg goldsmiths.

By repute this 15oz silver chamber stick and snuffer with glass hurricane shade was a gift from Queen Victoria to her personal attendant and favourite John Brown (1826-83).

Estimated at £120-150, this modest 7in (17cm) high Chinese export silver golfing trophy sold for £5500 at Bourne End Auction Rooms (17.5% buyer’s premium).

Special look at the cross-over market for coronation and commemorative items

Goldsmiths’ Company librarian Eleni Bide on commemorative hallmarks

Isle of Wight antiques dealer Kevin Morris specialises in pottery including early English delftware and Italian maiolica.

Single sale offers two notable collections featuring Italian maiolica and French faience

The medallion of a kneeling slave asking the rhetorical question 'Am I Not A Man And A Brother?' was first made in 1787 on the founding of the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade.

Popular figures were created in Chelsea by husband and wife duo Charles and Nell Vyse

Translating simply as ‘a box with drawers’ but so much more exotic than that, a rare Spanish Renaissance caja con cajones was the outstanding lot at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood’s (25% buyer’s premium) quarterly fine art sale in Exeter.

This remarkable Baccarat tantalus in the form of an elephant and howdah sold at Can$120,000 (£75,000) at an auction in Victoria, British Columbia.

Strawser auction group holds a three-day sale series in Indiana on May 25 & 27-28.

Typically, the work of studio potter Joanna Constantinidis (1927-2000), for nearly 40 years a lecturer in ceramics at Chelmsford Technical College and School of Art, has tended to occupy the second tier of the burgeoning contemporary ceramics market.

The Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair in Battersea Park is well known for selling garden items.

Among the stand-out items at 'The Petworth Park Antiques & Fine Art Fair' are two Regency glass crown scent bottles made for the coronation of King George IV.

The latest design sale at Roseberys featured this Aesthetic movement silver and ivory claret or water jug designed by Christopher Dresser.

Alastair Gibson Auctions has secured a remarkable Chinese imperial object with a Second Opium War provenance for a sale in London in the summer.