Auctioneers

While wine served by Richard and Sheila Miller was generally drunk from Georgian glasses, it could come to the table via these later talking points.

A round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days, including news of Aaron Dean joining Adam Partridge.

Kashmir sapphires have acquired a near-legendary status, due to their lustrous cornflower colour, soft velvety texture and extreme rarity.

The collection of about 800 engraved gems formed by the nobleman and politician George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough (1739-1817), was the largest and most important of the age.

The stopwatch used by English referee Jack Taylor in the 1974 World Cup final sold for a within-estimate £3300 at Fellows (23/15% buyer’s premium) in Birmingham.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Gustav Klimt was without doubt the most famous Austrian painter, and Josef Hoffmann the most renowned designer and architect.

Halls’ (23% buyer’s premium) Summer auction in Shrewsbury on June 16 included a private collection of nine pieces of Boucheron jewellery.

A new record for the Pilkington’s Lancastrian factory was set by Moreton-in-Marsh firm Kinghams.

Included in the Cheffins Fine Sale in Cambridge on June 30-July 1 are more than 50 lots of furniture, antiques, ceramics and collectors’ items from the famous Hertfordshire estate, Julians Park.

A highlight from the Fine Chinese Paintings and Works of Art sale at Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury on July 27 is this set of four porcelain plaques by the celebrated Republic period artist Wang Qi (1884-1937).

The Welsh sale at Rogers Jones in Cardiff on July 24 includes this rare Ewenny pottery slipware wassail bowl and cover, estimated at £3000-5000.

Sotheby’s has described this oil on canvas by Frederic, Lord Leighton (1830-96) as “a fascinating and beautiful rediscovery”.

The opening lot in Hake’s June 29-30 auction Pennsylvania, is a 1767 promissory note hand-signed by a prominent Virginia slave owner – George Washington.

The 1702 Accession of Queen Anne medal is not uncommon in copper and silver but very rare in gold.

This Egyptian 25th or 26th Dynasty polychrome limestone relief fragment, the property of a Belgian collector, comes for sale at Christie’s Antiquities auction in London on July 7.

An unrecorded landscape by Andrea Locatelli (1693- c.1741) is among the lots on offer at Bonhams’ Old Masters sale in July.

In 1820 the then US Secretary of State John Quincy Adams commissioned William J Stone to produce a facsimile of the original 'Declaration of Independence'.