Auctioneers

This agate, enamel and gemset cameo brooch carved with the profile of a classical maiden is signed verso for Georges Bissinger.

On September 18-19 Sotheby’s will offer an American library on the history of computing formed by the late Erwin Tomash (1921-2012), a sale that runs to 944 lots in all but is divided into two sections.

Three modestly valued works in regional sales, sold for under £900.

Victoria, Princess Royal (1840-1901), shed her first baby tooth at the age of seven while the royal family was a guest of the Duke of Abercorn at Ardverikie, by Loch Laggan. Her father Prince Albert tugged the tooth free himself and had it set in gold and enamel as a brooch. The milk tooth formed the blossom of thistle.

Just a month after the Second World War, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) was in Paris working at the lithography workshop of Fernand Mourlot (1895-1988). It was the beginning of a collaboration that would last almost three decades and produce more than 400 different graphic images and editions.

A demi-parure of mid-18th century Swedish gold jewellery offered by Brightwells (22% buyer’s premium) in Leominster was accompanied by a painted portrait miniature of the original owner wearing the set. The miniature, although uninscribed, was dated 1845.

August is the month when Scotland takes it up a notch while the rest of the art world has a breather.

Far more fluent in the language of jewellery and stones, the Georgians and Victorians would have immediately made the link between snakes and eternal love. The ouroboros – a serpent swallowing its own tail – was commonly understood as a symbol of eternity.

Ahead of its season-opening September 18 jewellery sale, Chiswick Auctions invited Jessica Diamond, the suitably-named jewellery editor for 'Condé Nast Traveller', to pick her top 10 lots from the catalogue.

An Indian School work guided at £100-150 was the star turn at Greenslade Taylor Hunt (19.5% buyer’s premium) of Taunton in Somerset on August 2.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

A remarkable collection of early rings was offered by Hansons (20% buyer’s premium) in Etwall, Derbyshire, this summer.

A final selection from the extremely varied Christie’s (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) major summer sale ranges from the scientific works of such giants as Newton and Galileo to the first jigsaw puzzle.