Auctioneers

The second half of the 19th century was a key period in the European art pottery movement with much experimentation in glazing and design.

A late 15th century French illuminated manuscript vellum leaf achieved the stand-out result in a collection of illuminated manuscripts offered at Batemans (25% buyer’s premium).

A recent sale held by arms and armour specialist Antony Cribb (25% buyer’s premium) in Compton, Berkshire, included one of the rarest of British patent corkscrews.

Gillian Raffles (1930-2021) was one of a very small number of pioneering female gallerists in Britain’s post-war art scene.

A rare photograph from the funeral of Victorian explorer Dr David Livingstone (1813-73) comes to auction in Essex this summer.

The lost art of murrine - the creation of complex patterns by fusing together slices of coloured glass cane - was rediscovered by glass blowers in the Venetian lagoon in the late 19th century.

The sell-off of works once owned by failed art gallery Trinity House Paintings has begun with Sir John Lavery’s portrait of Mrs Geoffrey Birkbeck being sold at a Dreweatts auction.

It’s not often that a group of medals offered at auction includes two that were in fact officially revoked. However, a lot that appeared at an East Yorkshire auction house on June 27 reflected a notorious tale of colonial corruption.

A robe worn by magician and comedian Tommy Cooper (1921-84) during the performance in which he which he suffered a heart attack and collapsed on stage has been sold at a North Yorkshire auction.

This unusually large giltwood figure of Guanyin, the Chinese goddess of compassion and mercy, attracted numerous bidders to Nagel’s (24.5% buyer’s premium) sale of Asian art on June 6-7 in Stuttgart.

Railway locomotive nameplates can bring large sums in the saleroom, even when they are included in general rather than specialist auctions.

A fine Indian Kashmir shawl of intricate traditional design offered in Colchester included a sewn label 'Horatia E Erskine, June 26th 1861 (Indian) from H.M. Queen Victoria'.

A “very rare” First World War pair of medals and memorial plaque to a female casualty of the SS Lusitania came up for auction at Mayfair saleroom Noonans (24% buyer’s premium) on July 16.

A riverside view of Lindsey House in London’s Cheyne Walk drew decent interest at a recent Bonhams (28% buyer’s premium) sale but ended up selling for markedly less than its last auction appearance 10 years ago.

Builder’s ship models are exactly the kind of old-school exhibits that museums are hiding away in dusty storage or selling off. Fortunately for auction houses, they are instead being welcomed into collections by eager buyers.