Auctioneers

The Horlicks collection of Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson furniture will be sold at auction in Stansted Mountfitchet this autumn.

The mammoth disposal of the Aristophil collections of historic manuscripts began last week with a premium-inclusive €17.6m series of seven June auctions offered over four days at Drouot (June 15 and 18-20).

A long-running legal dispute over a Fatimid rock crystal ewer that had been due to sell at Sotheby’s has been settled in court.

Three 18th century English carved and painted wooden dolls, in the same family for over two centuries, were sold at Specialist Auction Services of Newbury on June 19.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

No two jobs are the same for the art shippers offering a bespoke service at the top end.

Market rebounds with £13.5m Franz Marc record at Christie’s after guaranteed works fail at Sotheby’s...

Less well-known than other daring young women in their flying machines, Peggy Salaman, or rather a bronze bust of her, emerged from a Mayfair basement to take off in a Suffolk saleroom.

Like many businesses scarred with bomb damage in post-war Britain, Lyons teashops were in need of cheering up.

The morality laws of pre-liberal Ireland added to the allure and market value of this Goldfinger poster offered by Richard Winterton (17.5% buyer’s premium).

Putting a third major collection of highly specialist and highly priced material onto the market within little over three years might seem to be asking too much of a limited number of wealthy enthusiasts.

A sophisticated disc-playing music box brought one of the highest recent prices for mechanical music at Thimbleby & Shorland (12% buyer’s premium) in Reading.

Billed as “the world’s most valuable illustrated book”, the ex-Duke of Portland set of Audubon’s Birds of America offered by Christie’s New York (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) on June 14 was sold for $8.3m (£6.24m), a price only once bettered at auction.

"He had taken a taxi from Heathrow to Easingwold. After fierce bidding on the phones and internet he bought it, put it in his suitcase and the taxi was still waiting outside the saleroom with the meter ticking to go back to Heathrow.”

Camels are the linking theme of the two lots illustrated here, so a verse by Ogden Nash copied below seems to fit the bill.

For many years now, German Enigma code machines have been making big, sums at auction, but in the Bonhams New York June 12 sale a slim codebook relating to their use also prompted a much, much higher than expected and six-figure bid.