Auctioneers

Indian talismanic shirts or Qur’an jama were believed to carry protective powers.

Christopher Dresser created a number of daring geometric designs for silver and silver-plated toast racks in the late 1870s and early 1880s, both for Hukin & Heath and for James Dixon & Son.

Still a figure of glamour 450 years after her execution, Mary Queen of Scots was reputed to have embroidered the c.16th century fragment of bed curtain sold at Hansons (25% buyer’s premium) at Etwall on December 7.

Despite his famous name, the artist Henry Strachey (1863-1940) has never had much prominence at auction, with only around a dozen works having emerged.

There are only three other known examples of this early David Hockney (b.1937) etching titled 'Self-Portrait (not in S.A.C. or Tokyo)'.

Japanese antique ivories have been gradually disappearing from the catalogues of prominent dealers and major auction houses but good examples are still being sold in the regions.

Perhaps the most identifiable production of the Daoguang period (1820-50) of the Qing empire is the medallion bowl.

Collections relating to leading British film director Lewis Gilbert (1920-2018) and his wife of 53 years Hylda (d.2005) provided very different lots for Billingshurst auction house Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium).

The outstanding jade offered in the regions in the October-December period was this pale celadon teapot and cover that came for sale at Duke’s in Dorchester on December 8 from a Dutch private collection where it had been since the 1980s.

Bezoars (from the Persian pād-zahr meaning ‘poison antidote’) are the calcified concretion found in the stomachs of some animals. Prized for their supposed medicinal properties, until the Enlightenment science at the beginning of the 18th century they could sell for more than their weight in gold.

In 1602 the Dutch painter and printmaker Jan Saenredam made an engraving of a whale that had been washed ashore near the town of Beverwijk.

A 19th century sea otter amulet in walrus ivory and baleen fashioned as a mother and her pup sold for £24,000 at Woolley & Wallis (25% buyer’s premium).

Grand Canal sketch has provenance to artist’s student who became a renowned collector

Original French text, translated by Caxton, then illustrated by 1930s engravings

Leading a recent Woolley & Wallis' (25/12% buyer’s premium) sale in Salisbury were two scroll paintings by well-known 20th century Chinese artists that came by descent from Field Marshal Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell (1883-1950).

Qianlong moon flasks of this type are based on Ming dynasty prototypes that in turn were inspired by early Persian drinking vessels traded along the Silk Road.

Early Japanese porcelain models of animals are very rare, and this elephant form koro, c.1700, offered for sale as part of the Woolley & Wallis (25/12% buyer’s premium) Japanese works of art sale appears to be unrecorded.

This Japanese cloisonné casket bears the mark for the Ando Company of Nagoya.

This late 19th century walking cane with sturdy ebonised shaft and silver-plated handle comes with a letter of provenance stating that it had been a gift from Irish revolutionary soldier and politician Michael Collins (1890-1922) to Patrick Baker, head barman at the Gresham Hotel in Dublin.

Appealing to a range of different types of collectors, Victorian and Edwardian animals pin cushions have their own niche in the novelty silver field.