Auctioneers

Bought for just £40 earlier in the year, two rare bronze buttons designed by Alberto Giacometti for Elsa Schiaparelli hammered for £48,000 at the latest Modern Decorative Art & Design sale at Bonhams Knightsbridge.

An Adelie penguin egg collected by Herbert Ponting (1871-1935) on the ill-fated Terra Nova expedition came for sale in Nantwich on January 8.

A scarce copy of Beatrix Potter’s 'The Fairy Caravan' sold for £3000 in Tennants’ (24% buyer’s premium) Books, Maps & Manuscripts Sale.

This carved wooden tobacconist figure or ‘Cigar Indian’ came to Ewbank’s (25% buyer’s premium) auction in Send, Surrey, by descent through the vendor’s family.

One of the eight York Rose brooches given by Prince Albert to the bridesmaids who attended his marriage to Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923 sold for £15,000.

A rare first edition of Enid Blyton’s first published book, Child Whispers, hammered at £1400 in the Thomson Roddick (20% buyer’s premium) book sale on December 4.

Expect records to tumble in the market for Indian art and antiques in 2026.

Not that many footballers can be “as deeply woven into Leicester City and Scarborough football history as Colin Appleton (1936-2021)”, it is true.

Did you know that Great Britain are still the Olympic tug of war champions? The City of London Police Team competed for GB in the 1920 Antwerp Olympics, winning gold – and the category has not appeared since at a Games.

This imposing pair of 3ft 8in (1.09m) high hexagonal form vases combine both early 19th century Chinese and later 19th century French craftsmanship.

Auctioneer finds out there are two variations of the 1875 guide, but a record is achieved nevertheless

The opening date for Bonhams’ new US headquarters at 111 West 57th Street, New York, is February 9.

A group of works by George Richmond (1809-96) offered at auction at the end of last year showed plenty of life remains in the market for the London-born painter.

A Japonisme foo dog vase by Émile Gallé (1846-1904) hammered for $35,000 (£26,440) against a guide of $3000-5000 at Rago (27% buyer’s premium) in Lambertville, New Jersey.

Doulton figures and jugs depicting the famous and not-so-familiar include sought-after rarities

Once renowned for achievements wearing goalkeeping gloves, Pat Jennings (b.1945) achieved an auction white-glove result when his memorabilia collection sold out at Budds (24% buyer’s premium).

As ruler of an empire on which the sun never set, Queen Victoria adopted the Indian practice of giving Kashmiri shawls as gifts to visiting dignitaries and coming-of-age and wedding presents to her friends at court.

In February in New York, Sotheby’s will offer for sale one of the most important illustrated Hebrew Prayerbooks to come to market: The Rothschild Vienna Mahzor.

While not instantly familiar to many non-American readers, The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams (1881-1944) has never been out of print and its many reprints have sold over a million copies in the US alone.