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A prayerbook presented by Louis XV to Maria Leczinska as a wedding present in 1725 sold at Sotheby’s (23.92/14.35% buyer’s premium) for €280,000 (£200,000) on December 2, during an otherwise disappointing 194-lot royal provenance sale that brought €1.26m (£900,000) and was 72 per cent sold by value, but just 56 per cent by lot.

The main head-turner at the Hove sale held by Scarborough Perry Fine Arts (15% buyer’s premium) on December 2-3 was this striking 19th century Italian, gold-mounted tortoiseshell snuffbox with a finely executed micromosaic lid, right.

WHEN the first part of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha was published in Madrid in 1605, it proved an immediate success, but as the original publisher, Francisco de Robles, had failed to register copyright outside his native Castile, others were quick to jump on the Cervantes bandwagon.

Richardson & Smith, Whitby, November 18 Buyer’s premium: 12.5 per cent Furniture produced the top lots in this routine 717-lot North Yorkshire auction, topped by an oak dresser and a plate rack with a shaped crest over four tiers.

An unusual picture, both in terms of its style and quality, was the star of the show at this year’s Fine Paintings sale held by the Scottish auctioneers John Swan (10% buyer’s premium) at Dryburgh Abbey Hotel near St Boswells on December 2.

Nadar (1820-1910), real name Félix Tournachon, is best known as one of the leading specialists in early photographic portraits.

NEVER forget there is another armory in Manhattan, the one downtown at Lexington Avenue at 26th Street, and that one hosts some splendid shows throughout the year, starting in 2005 with the appropriately named Antiques at the Armory from January 21 to 23.