Auctioneers

In his book 'Oriental Rugs' (1998), textiles scholar Murray Eiland Jr lamented the challenges in dating and identifying carpets woven in south-east India.

Few auction houses have expanded their roster of full-time staff over the past 12 months but one of those bucking the trend is Forum Auctions.

This coin, from the period known as ‘The Anarchy’, was discovered by a metal detectorist in a Yorkshire field in March.

Although now known as Gainsborough chairs, generous walnut and upholstered armchairs were often referred to by contemporaries as ‘French’ chairs, as the most elaborate styles were based on French rococo.

The auction firm Peschetau-Badin (22.5% buyer’s premium) is known for holding dedicated ceramics sales and offered a two-day auction of European ceramics.

Sold for a record €260,000 (£234,235) in Hamburg was a copy of Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer’s Speculum nauticum super navigatione maris occidentalis…

The Gros & Delettrez (30% buyer’s premium) auction of Art Deco held in Paris on January 22 offered works from the collection of a gallery owner.

In the absence of face-to-face contact, 2020 was a difficult year for the numismatics market as a whole... but the auction business found a way to thrive.

A record for a British token was set at Dix Noonan Webb on May 26 when this copper coin – the only specimen known in commerce – took £7000 (estimate £400-500).

Quartet of West Country works featured in the same sale as our £105,000 cover star

Work produced in Brussels in the 1530s by a master of illumination soars way over estimate in Sotheby's London auction

Roma Numismatics set a new record for a classical coin when a Brutus Eid Mar-type gold aureus, struck shortly after the murder of Julius Caesar, took £2.7m in October.

Though incomplete and in a decorative 19th century binding, a very desirable early Bible impressed at Chiswick Auctions (25/12% buyer’s premium).

On March 23 Christie’s France, in association with booksellers Jacques Quentin (Geneva) and Benoît Forgeot (Paris), will offer the first part of the poetic library of Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller.

The numismatic department of TimeLine is a small but important part of the auction house’s activities in the related disciplines of antiquities and medieval works of art.

Two pieces of sculpture – both catalogued as 19th century copies – made much higher than expected prices in the UK regions last month.

The highest auction price for 12 years for Beryl Cook (1926-2008) was posted at David Lay’s recent fine art sale.

Dix Noonan Webb’s highest-priced lot of 2020 was this Crimean War Naval Brigade Victoria Cross group of four sold for £240,000 on October 15. The estimate was £120,000-160,000.

Georg Siegmund Stobwasser (1717-76) and his son Johann Heinrich (1740-1829) were among many craftsmen who moved to Brunswick during the Seven Years’ War.