Auctioneers

This intriguing rock crystal pendant may have been used as a ‘charmstone’. It follows the same form as the famous Glenorchy Charmstone in the National Museums of Scotland and may too have once adorned an early reliquary.

A trio of five-figure offerings got Salisbury auction house Woolley & Wallis (25% buyer’s premium) off to a great start for 2020.

Hopes are high that the market for traditional British sporting paintings could experience a boost in demand after a single-owner collection racked up over £2m at auction in London.

Two ‘Frost Fair’ broadsides printed at one of the many stalls set up on the Thames during a hard 18th century winter in which London’s river froze over were sold in a recent sale held by Dominic Winter (20% buyer’s premium).

Claymores (the word comes from the Scottish Gaelic claidheamh-mor meaning ‘great sword’) were the weapon of choice in the ongoing warfare between Highland clans and border skirmishes with the English from c.1400-1700.

Lambertsville, New Jersey, auction house Rago/Wright is to launch a new sale category on February 12 titled 'Studio Jewelry 1900-Present'.

A trio of pure collectables picked up by UK privates bidders at the Woolley & Wallis (25% buyer’s premium) auction in Salisbury on January 8.

Found in the roof space of a Devon cottage, an oil painting of a pointer dog in an open field sold for £3400 at Sherborne saleroom Charterhouse (25% buyer’s premium).

According to a popular story, alexandrite, one of the three main varieties of chrysoberyl, was discovered in the Urals by the Finnish mineralogist Nils Gustaf Nordenskiöld (1792-1866) and named in honour of the future Tsar Alexander II of Russia.

Glyphic art was one of the success stories of 2019. The return to collecting fashion of this once dusty academic field is bringing more hardstone gems to the market.

A watercolour study of a dead pheasant attributed to JMW Turner (1775-1851) was taken to £14,000 at a Scottish auction house.

An unusual but welcome inclusion to the latest silver and vertu sale at Lawrences of Crewkerne was a medieval walrus ivory tableman or backgammon piece.

The English artist, illustrator and author Christopher ‘Kit’ Williams (b.1946) is best known for the book 'Masquerade', the pictorial storybook which contained clues to the location of an 18ct gold jewelled hare buried somewhere in the British countryside. It created quite a sensation in 1979.

Any museum or collector seeking a centrepiece for their display need look no further than the Gatling gun – a pivotal invention that makes its presence felt by its sheer size and bling.

Rare and well-preserved armour from pre-history to the 17th century was well received in the pre-Christmas sales. Three examples are pictured here.

This ‘Black Forest’ type clock on the theme of hunting is signed by Swiss master carver Johann Huggler of Brienz (1834-1912).