Auctioneers

In 2010 The National Gallery held the first exhibition of works by Frederick Cayley Robinson (1862-1927) in the UK for 30 years.

Top lot in a sale held by Mallams (25% buyer’s premium) of Oxford was a 1719-20, first edition set of 'The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe…', 'The Farther Adventures…' and 'The Serious Reflections…' in later but very smart bindings of red morocco gilt by Francis Bedford of London.

On December 2 at Drouot, auction house Daguerre is selling a painting by Raden Saleh (1811-80), the first modern Indonesian painter of the 19th century.

Before match programmes grew into the glossy mini-magazines of today they were relatively simple affairs – most just a single sheet printed on both sides.

Stan Anderson (1934-2018) was a north-eastern football stalwart playing as captain for a hat-trick of local clubs.

One of the first sales held by Bonhams (27.5/25/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) in its new Paris rooms was devoted to works by Jean Cocteau (1889- 1963).

A group of “rare and interesting” 20th century cycling ephemera relating primarily to the Olympic Games offered by Catherine Southon (20% buyer’s premium) came from the collection of cycling journalist David Taylor (1937-2020).

A humble table tennis bat bought at a car boot sale in Surrey for £3.50 served up a surprise at Hansons’ (25% buyer’s premium) London monthly auction on September 25.

William De Morgan considered pieces from the Moonlight and Sunset Suite made in the early 1890s to be his very best work.

Among Gilbert Ledward’s (1880-1960) most admired works is the sensuous nude, 'Awakening' or 'The Awakening', that today stands in Ropers Garden on the Chelsea Embankment.

Relating to perhaps the most famous of all compositions for the lute, a version of John Dowland’s 'Lachrimae pavane' proved a major attraction in a music sale held by Sotheby’s (26/20/13.9% buyer’s premium).

Derbyshire auction house Hansons (25% buyer’s premium) sold memorabilia this summer worn by two Manchester United favourites of different eras: George Best and David Beckham.

The personal desk set of the artist/decorator Paul Dupré Lafon (1900-71) will feature in the sale of Decorative Arts to be held by Tajan on November 23.

An England blue velvet and silver braid cap awarded to Sir Alfred Ramsey sold for a mid-estimate £3400 at Lacy Scott & Knight (22.5% buyer’s premium) in Bury St Edmunds.

While COP26 has been in full swing in Glasgow, Forum Auctions has been fronting a charity sale highlighting environmental issues including climate change.

Maurice Setters (1936-2020) is perhaps best known to many football fans as the assistant to Jack Charlton as Republic of Ireland enjoyed success in the 1980s-90s.

A great many of the lots that brought prices in the £1000-10,000 range in a recent Cheltenham sale were multiples of varying size – some running to as many as a hundred volumes – but noted here are a couple with that same Spetchley Park provenance that can be more precisely defined.

Fashioned into a recumbent billy goat or deer, this diminutive Qing dynasty rhinoceros horn carving goes under the hammer in the inaugural live auction of Asian art from St James’s dealer Alastair Gibson of Gibson Antiques.

A painting of a pugilist will now be researched by the dealer who bought it at auction thanks to his collecting fascination with the early days of the sport