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This cased pair of English flintlock duelling pistols by Joseph Gulley, London, c.1810-15, sold for £8600 at Halls (20/12% buyer’s premium) in a timed online sale that ended on August 2.

A small group of highly personal works by Henry Lamb (1883-1960) provided an intriguing insight into his life and work at the Modern British art sales at Bonhams this summer.

It is close on 50 years since a 1705 first of John Law’s 'Money and Trade Considered…' was seen at auction, said Lyon & Turnbull (20% buyer’s premium) of the copy in re-backed contemporary calf that it sold for £22,000 in a summer sale held in Edinburgh.

The two cut-out and trimmed coloured initials illustrated here are part of a group of six, taken from two manuscripts of 12th century French origin, that made up a lot sold for £10,000 in a July 6 sale held by Bloomsbury Auctions (25/20/12% buyer’s premium).

James Brett of The Gallery of Everything cultivates an attitude that selling for its own sake is less important than putting on a rattling good show.

The Nicolier family were long-established antiques dealers who were based on the Quai Voltaire on the Parisian left bank for many decades.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the French military could feel pretty proud of itself. The dashing style and spirit of their forces in the 19th century often inspired other nations to create copycat units.

The murder of William Weare in the Hertfordshire village of Radlett in 1823 has been called the first trial by newspaper.

Two more London fairs are on the cards for next year.

A combination of artist, sitter, date and quality ensured a compelling Newlyn school portrait caught the eye at David Lay’s latest auction in Penzance.

According to family history, an Art Deco four-piece suite offered by Mander (20% buyer’s premium) in Sudbury on July 9 has an ocean-going history.

Items collected and meticulously recorded from the 1970s onwards by a trade couple had the attractions of ‘dealer’s choice’ provenances when offered at Hanson Holloway’s Ross (25% buyer’s premium).

Both categories are particularly notable as Mark and Marjorie Allen lots sell in Pennsylvania