Auctioneers

The windmill cup was the most popular of the novelty silver wager cups produced from the late 16th century until the early 18th century.

Top names in their different fields, ages and markets, Wurlitzer and Armand Marseilles were the star makers at Hartleys (17.5% buyer’s premium).

The Spanish woollen rug illustrated here was pitched at £100-200 in Mallams’ (25% buyer’s premium) Abingdon rooms on October 18.

A collection of silver assembled over half a century by a Brussels general practitioner with a passion for 18th century French silver is to be offered for sale by Dupont & Associés, Morlaix Enchères, at Drouot in Paris on December 6.

In a recent Financial Times article titled 'Dangerous baubles for boys', historian and style journalist Nick Foulkes commented that a friend had “described my hands as looking like a cabinet of curiosities trying to emulate a pair of knuckledusters”.

As very personal items, typically weighing little more than an ounce of bullion, the most numerous silver survivors from the 17th century are spoons.

In demand at home and abroad during his lifetime, the eminent miniaturist John Smart was an international draw at a trio of sales.

Running to just 20 or so words, a tiny signed card in which Abraham Lincoln instructs Edwin Stanton to meet with the African-American abolitionist and officer Martin Delany in Washington led the bidding at Doyle (26/21/15% buyer’s premium) on September 23.

This Charles II silver mounted coconut cup is particularly rare on account of its marks for the Hull silversmith Edward Mangie (1634-85).

Now handsomely bound in full red morocco and contained in slipcases, a set of first-edition copies of what are collectively known as ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ of CS Lewis led a Thomson Roddick (18% buyer’s premium) sale of October 7 with a bid of £3400 from a buyer on thesaleroom.com.

Group of works from the late US dealer’s collection demonstrates his wide range of interests.

The V&A loses out in £23,000 bidding battle for Prince Albert’s drawings of the diamond and sapphire coronet he designed for Queen Victoria.

This pair of William III silver candlesticks came for sale at Potteries Auctions (20% buyer’s premium).

Leonardo Da Vinci’s work has long held a fascination, as a near-contemporaneous copy confirms

Given their relatively small metal content, many silver-mounted ‘tigerware’ beer jugs survived the great bullion melting of the English Civil War, making them perhaps the most recognised example of late 16th century silver today.

The auction at toy specialist C&T (22% buyer’s premium) in Kenardington, Kent, on November 3 included this very rare pair of doll’s shoes dated to c.1700.

Bid to to £400 in an October 6 sale held by Halls (20/12% buyers premium) of Shrewsbury was a simple, partly printed receipt in the sum of three guineas with autograph additions and signature that date it to April 24, 1806.

Hindman Auctions has appointed Christine Broski to oversee business development in Denver and the Rocky Mountain region.

Most angles on the collecting spectrum were covered in Bamfords’ (24.75% buyer’s premium) three-day autumnal catalogue.

Few painters on the Danish art scene in the late 19th century felt a close affinity with contemporary English art. Symbolist painter Agnes Slott-Møller (1862-1937) was among the exceptions.