Auctioneers

A selection of wristwatch previews.

A selection of wristwatch previews.

A selection of wristwatch previews.

This Tudor period gold finger ring with the initials RB was found by a detectorist on land to the west of Crewkerne in 2017.

More than £47m of Modern British art changed hands in a bumper series held in London, as buyers competed fiercely for blue-chip pieces and lots offering best value.

A hairwork bracelet offered at auction was inscribed to a gold mount: From the Mane of the Charger Copenhagen which carried the Duke of Wellington 18 successive hours on the 18th June 1815, The Battle of Waterloo.

Woolley & Wallis is currently selling across a number of sales a cache of items from the family of HG Murphy (1884-1939), whose Falcon Studio produced some of the finest English silver of the inter-war era.

Sold for $32,000 (£24,060) at Christie’s New York (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) on June 14 was an Edison Universal Stock Ticker.

Two 1859 firsts of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species…, neither in what could be called good condition, made very strong prices in recent weeks. This is a book nowadays so desirable that such shortcomings can be overlooked.

The July Old Master auctions in London were a mixed affair with the lack of blockbuster lots meaning the overall total was down on the levels of the last two years.

An archive relating to three Suffragette sisters has been bought at a Hansons auction by a well-known dealer in memorabilia.

This red coral necklace had formed part of The International Fisheries Exhibition staged at the Royal Horticultural Society grounds in South Kensington in 1883.

A selection of wristwatch previews.

New auction records were achieved for two of the four Scottish Colourists in the space of a week.

As the market develops, some of the ‘secondary’ niche Swiss brands have entered the mainstream collecting arena. The Bonhams (25% buyer’s premium) Fine Watches and Wristwatches sale on June 20 offered a range of 46 Heuers from a single-owner private collection.

An inscription reading “For Mrs Oliver, from Beatrix Potter – with kind regards & best wishes for Christmas 1901” was a welcome bonus on a copy of the first, privately printed edition of The Tale of Peter Rabbit.

Summer tribal art sales in Paris have produced a clutch of strong results for works from different world centres, both African and Oceanic, often for pieces that came with renowned provenances. Three of them are pictured here.

A selection of wristwatch previews.