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AN ex-Cambridge University student, jailed for four years for plundering priceless historical book collections, may face a stiffer sentence unless he repays hundreds of thousands of pounds.

THE WILD IRISH GIRL was the novel that made the name of Miss Sydney Owenson, the daughter of a Shrewsbury merchant and mayor who later married Sir Thomas Charles Morgan, surgeon to her Dublin patrons, the Marquess and Lady Abercorn. A self-proclaimed national tale, it weaves Irish history, politics and mythology into a romantic tale but the author’s vision of a politically and religiously united Ireland remains a dream.

A former chief executive of Vernon’s Pools hit the jackpot at Vectis (10 per cent buyer’s premium) on May 8-9, when the specialist toy auctioneers dispersed just over 2000 lots of his Dinky and Corgi vehicles at their Buckingham salerooms for a total of £350,000.

Rising above all else at the Chichester sales held by Strides (15% buyer’s premium) on April 26 was this 9ft (2.74m) high, c.1800 mahogany longcase clock, right. In a market where decorative clocks are selling better than ever, this piece by Hardeman and Son of Bridge was a timely reminder that large, plain clocks can still do very well if they have an unusual movement.

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Sir Nicholas Goodison, chairman of the National Art Collections Fund (the Art Fund) since 1986, is to step down from the post at the end of the year.

THIS wig powderer was made in York in 1817. Described in Michael Clayton’s book The Collector’s Dictionary of Silver & Gold of Great Britain & North America as “a tapering cylinder, from the cover of which rises a tube with a mouth of spherical form,” this type is dated to around 1800.