News topics

Despite – or perhaps because of – the pandemic, three of the top international auction houses posted record or near-record results for 2021.

On November 25 Dix Noonan Webb sold the first tranche of banknotes from the enormous collection of the late Gus Mac Amhlaigh of Dublin.

Successful £15.3m campaign secures British literature treasures including Brontë family manuscripts.

Trademark colourful picture features people depicted with a distinctive style of limbs.

An artist’s painting of his wife turned heads at a recent David Lay (18% buyer’s premium) auction in Penzance, selling over 10 times above estimate.

In 1946 the artist Laura Knight (1877-1970) was commissioned by the War Artists’ Advisory Committee to create a painting of the Nuremberg Trials.

A single-page letter sent on the day before Steve Jobs’ 19th birthday to a close school friend, Tim Brown, sold for $400,000 (£292,825) in New York.

Sixteenth-century globes rarely appear on the market. So, Jim Spencer, Hansons’ works on paper specialist, had been amazed to encounter one at a valuation day in Bishton Hall, Staffordshire.

National Museums Scotland has acquired a trio of exceptionally rare Scottish silver objects created in the 1600s from the collection of Edinburgh jeweller Ron (1946-2012) and Rosemary Haggarty.

Perhaps established as early as 1735, the Royal Burgess Golfing Society of Edinburgh holds claim to be the oldest golfing society in the world.

This group of clothing offered at Railtons (20% buyer’s premium) in Wooler, Northumberland, on December 3, was used by geologist and explorer Lawrence Wager (1904-65) during the 1933 Everest expedition.

ATG’s pick of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com, featuring both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

Arsenal FC’s familiar red jersey with white arms is instantly recognisable to football fans worldwide now. However, a pair of shirts sold at the Graham Budd (20.5% buyer’s premium) December 1-2 auction in London show an earlier look.

View of French resort comes from collection assembled over decades by a dealer and his wife.

The Aynsley factory’s reputation for good quality, unadventurous bone china tea and coffee wares made it the safe choice for many British households.

An unpublished lacquer panel by Jean Dunand (1877-1942), the Art Deco artist/designer who was one of the masters of the medium, was one of the highlights in a 45-lot white-glove auction held by Ferri (28.8% buyer’s premium inc VAT) at Drouot in Paris.

Rose and Gallichan sale reflects pioneering spirit of a duo fascinated by late 19th century design.

This silver medal sold for £3250 at Fellows (23% buyer’s premium) is one of a relatively small number awarded at the Intercalated Games in Athens in 1906.

A group of medals awarded to a First World War ‘Tommy’ sold for a mid-estimate £2400 at Kent auction house C&T (22% buyer’s premium) on October 20-21. Not that unusual, it would seem.