Auctioneers

Bianca Cutait has joined Bonhams as a senior specialist for the Post-War & Contemporary art department, based in Miami (also with a focus on Latin America).

This unusual Grand Tour paperweight shown here is made from fragments of Roman mosaic, millefiori, spiral twist and reticelli glass.

Bid to £16,000 in a sale held by Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) of Dorchester was a 1921 first of Agatha Christie’s The Mysterious House at Styles.

Sale tells a tale of the English and Scottish makers who headed out to India for work

In a Ligurian Garden, a previously missing exhibition work by the British Impressionist Henry Herbert La Thangue (1859-1929), sold for £180,000 (plus buyer’s premium) in the British, European and Sporting Art Sale at Tennants in Leyburn.

Auction house Sworders hopes to promote more sustainable delivery options by offering sea freight as opposed to air freight for international shipments.

A group of medals awarded to the great scientist, explorer and naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) was fiercely contested at auction last week, hammered down for a £273,000 (or £327,600 with buyer’s premium) total against a high estimate of £80,900.

Chicago auction house Hindman is offering a portrait of Ira Aldridge (1807-67), the first black Shakespearean actor to gain international recognition.

He may have been considered ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know’ but items connected to Lord Byron (1788-1824) make for very welcome auction consignments.

Sealed wine bottles possess a powerful sense of time and place. For some collectors it is the regional connections that appeal most.

Bonhams Skinner’s August 13 Americana auction in Massachusetts will feature a wide selection of American, English and Chinese Export works of art and paintings.

Another high price for Helen Bradley (1900-79) came at Cheshire saleroom Wilson55 (22% buyer’s premium) last month.

Sold for $2m (£1.62m) in a major and hugely successful comics sale held by Heritage (20% buyer’s premium) of Dallas was an original cover artwork produced in 1986 by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley for Batman: The Dark Knight Returns #1.

An example of 19th century archaeological revivalist jewellery was one of the best-sellers in the July 8-10 auction at Thomaston Place Auction Galleries (20% buyer’s premium).

Mainland Chinese buyers bidding on jade, porcelain, wooden and textile offerings dominated the leader board at an Asian & Islamic sale at Cheltenham.

Three lots at Tennants’ (22% buyer’s premium) traced the history of Stan Dodds (1928-2012) – the first and foremost of the Critters.