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MADAM – I appreciate I had my turn the other day (Letters, ATG No 2369), but a quick note covering two points if I may.

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period November 29-December 5 2018. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

Identifying the sitters of the past is one of the biggest drivers of value when it comes to selling traditional portraits on the secondary market.

“When I was putting this exhibition together, a lot of people thought I would not be able to find 50 different women British artists to show. In the end, I could have shown 500,” says Sacha Llewellyn of 20th century British art specialist Liss Llewellyn.

The BBC appears to have listened to the negative reaction from viewers and ATG readers to the voiceover on Paul Martin’s TV show 'Make Me A Dealer'.

MADAM – Re: condition report charges at Moore Allen & Innocent for lower-value items.

Three modestly valued works in regional sales, including a Keith Vaughan pen, ink and wash.

Along with Pallas’ 'Flora Russica', the 'Icones Plantarum novarum… floram Rossicam' of the German-Estonian botanist Carl Friedrich von Ledebour is recognised as one of the great works on Russian flora.

Dated 1536 and printed in Antwerp, a defective copy of what is known as the ‘mole’ edition of Tyndale’s Newe Testament – so called from the mole (or perhaps hedgehog) depicted on a stone on which St Paul’s foot is resting in one of the many woodcut illustrations – made £30,000 in a recent London sale.

A selection of potential highlights coming up in December and January sales taking place in Detroit, Chicago, New York, California, Boston and Connecticut.