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Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

I first met Keith in 1971, when he became a customer, buying oak and artefacts from my stand in Nell Gwynn’s Cottage at Salisbury Hall, near St Albans. He quickly became my best customer, calling weekly and buying most of my new stock.

Painted with an image of an urn to the front cover of its vellucent binding and with a view of Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire to the rear, the Book of Common Prayer & Book of Psalmes shown below was printed in 1774 by T Wright & W Gill for the University of Oxford.

Although he was born and died in Moscow, the decisive phase of Wladimir von Bechtejeff’s artistic development can be dated to his time in Germany.

A single-owner collection of 33 sovereigns from the reign of Queen Elizabeth I generated a white-glove result at London auction house Dix Noonan Webb (24% buyer’s premium).

The strong prices for Modern British female artists keep rolling on. Among the notable results in the regions recently was a beach scene by Dorothea Sharp (1874-1955) that was among the star performers at Parker Auctions (25% buyer’s premium).

Gallery relocations give London firms the chance to re-think ways of doing business

A selection of 15 upcoming lots from auctions taking place around the UK and Ireland.

Female subjects dominate the work of Ethel Gabain (1883-1950), as in this 1908 lithograph 'Laveuse de Vaiselle'.

For many decades, the name Arnold Topp meant little to art collectors.

One of Sandro Botticelli’s most iconic paintings was his 'Madonna del Magnificat', painted in the 1481. The title is taken from the opening words of the Virgin’s song of exaltation, 'Magnificat anima mea dominum' (My soul doth glorify the Lord), which she is writing in the book before her.

A round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days, including news that a copy of the US Constitution will go on loan to a US museum.

An exceptional, expanded and specially cased example of Ippolito Rosellini’s 'I Monumenti dell Egitto e della Nubia' of 1832-34 topped the bidding in a Fonsie Mealy (20% buyer’s premium) sale of the library from Howth Castle.

Florrie Evans is director of The Fine Art Society in London, which launches its exhibition Scotland (December 2-23) as part of London Art Week.

Among the book lots offered as part of an October 7-8 sale at Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) the earliest was a Burgundian ‘Hours of the Virgin’ manuscript.

Star of the show at Dorotheum (28/25% buyer’s premium) in Vienna on November 9 was a large-format Venetian scene, painted by Luigi Querena in 1865.

Amassed by the headmaster of one of Britain’s finest public schools, the Silk collection of Staffordshire portrait figures provides a fillip to an overlooked market

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

The descendants of the Belgian collector Jef Vanderstraete have consigned this 20in (51cm) high gilt bronze figure of Avalokiteshvara Ekadashamukha to Lempertz in Cologne, where it is coming up for sale on December 11.

Paintings of caves including a view from a Channel Island in the spotlight at two salerooms