Auctioneers

A tribal war club from the Marquesas Islands with textbook provenance has sold for £71,000 at Woolley & Wallis. The u’u (head club) came for sale at the Salisbury saleroom from the descendants of an early-19th century missionary.

The first tranche of a private collection of predominantly Far Eastern maps and charts sold for more than £500,000 at Reeman Dansie and included a house record.

A poignant background story or strong suggestion of original ownership greatly adds to the appeal of early jewellery finds often unearthed by metal detectors

Boosted by the contents of a fine country home, the autumn sale at Cheffins (22.5% buyer’s premium) enjoyed moments of floor-to-ceiling success.

Just a little less famous than Fry’s 'Five Boys' image is the illustration by Tom Browne of a multi-class group outside a sweetshop with the line from 'Troilus and Cressida: One touch of Nature makes the whole World kin'.

Although the Hugo Lonitz factory produced a range of domestic tablewares and small collectables, it is best known for its naturalistic majolica groups, particularly animal and bird examples modelled in lifelike size and detail.

Auction includes collection of Modernist works breaking away from south Asian tradition

Despite surface dirt and other condition issues, a painting of Naples drew a dramatic bidding competition at a recent auction in Rome.

Variety was certainly in evidence in a West Sussex sale, where the teenage journal of a young stained-glass maker, two broadside ballads and an illustrated dummy for 'Down with Skool!' all brought much higher than predicted bids.

Though his works are now revered and highly valued in his native land, Edgar Allan Poe spent most of his writing life in debt. There were, however, a few months in the early 1840s when, while working in Philadelphia as an editor and contributor on 'Graham’s Magazine', he enjoyed some short-lived financial success.

Coloured diamonds aside, rubies command higher prices per carat than any other gemstone. Graded using the traditional criteria of the four Cs (colour, cut, clarity and carat weight), they are also evaluated on the basis of geographic origin with the stones from Burma commanding the most interest.

This Arts & Crafts-style necklace, alternating moonstone and chalcedony cabochons set in scrolling silver mounts, is the unmistakable work of the London jeweller Sybil Dunlop (1889-1968).

Newbury’s Special Auction Services is to expand into a double-height saleroom in the new year.

A sale at Gildings in Market Harborough this month included 10 lots from the family of Albert and Nora McGill – influential industrialists credited with a key role in the founding of Russia’s cotton mill industry in the mid-19th century.

Turbulent as politics are today, they have yet to reach the rumbustious heights of a notorious 1826 by-election in Northumberland, memories of which were revisited at Newcastle auction house Anderson & Garland (20% buyer’s premium).

Pair of candlesticks light up auction with surprise result.

Harry Becker (1865-1928) is not well known outside East Anglia but he is much admired both for a skilled grasp of Impressionism and his choice of subject matter.

Before he learnt to paint, Sheffield-born artist Joe Scarborough (b.1938) was a laboratory assistant at Batchelors, the processed food company, then a face worker at the Thorpe Hesley colliery.

Three modestly valued works selling at regional sales below £2000, including a pen and ink wash by Paul Sandby.