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A selection of highlights from the Chorley's auction on July 24-25 and the Tennants sale on July 21 (also see main Auction Reports story this edition).

Gloucestershire-based British art pottery dealer Alison Davey of AD Antiques has created a series of ‘passports’ for Martin Brothers’ birds.

As both a collecting and a decorating sphere, taxidermy is one of the major growth areas over the past decade.

A 19th century Italian oval micromosaic framed panel will feature in the mammoth August 25-26 sale at Thomaston Place Galleries in Maine.

A sale of books, maps and ephemera at Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium) included more than £17,000 worth of 19th and 20th century watercolours and drawings from the stock of a dealer.

A trio of works in regional auctions which sold under £800.

A consignment of items from the Long Island home of the de Forest family provided many of the best-sellers in a two-day auction held by Nye & Company (25% buyer’s premium) in Bloomfield, New Jersey.

An extensive collection of René Lalique ‘mascots’ amassed by a collector and dealer who wrote a book on the subject is coming up at auction in East Sussex.

MADAM – Six hundred and ninety-one people is actually a fairly decent response from a trade in which there are only a handful of interested parties (Letters, ATG No 2353).

From 1936-45, St Ives artist John Wells (1907-2000) embarked on a series of labour-intensive creations while working as a GP on the Isles of Scilly.

Illustrated with coloured engravings, The History of Sixteen Wonderful Old Women is a work of 1821 that is “thought to be the first printed book of Limericks”.

Two of only 11 leaves of the original, working manuscript of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species… known to remain in private hands were sold at auction in London last month.

Sold for £2500 in a Dominic Winter (20% buyer’s premium) sale of July 25 was an enormous archive of work produced in the 1950s and ‘60s by Leslie Starke (1905-74), a cartoonist once very popular in both the UK and US.

The strong suit in the extensive cricket section of Abacus Auctions’ (18% buyer’s premium) Sporting Memorabilia sale in Melbourne on July 22 proved to be a collection of early 20th century autographed real photo postcards of test cricketers that were offered individually.

Potter & Potter, specialist in auctions of magic memorabilia, is holding its summer sale in Chicago on August 25.

One of Ireland’s leading provincial auction houses, Mealy’s Fine Art of Castlecomer, County Kilkenny, has ceased trading after 84 years.

Private bidders were overtaken as dealers found warmth in the best traditional furniture and chattels offered at auction.

Tennants (20% buyer’s premium) of Leyburn claimed a new auction record for Bertram Priestman (1868-1951) when it sold a painting of an extensive river landscape by the local artist.

Cirencester saleroom Moore Allen & Innocent (20% buyer’s premium) enjoyed a taste of India’s fast-growing art market when three pictures by the Indian folk artist Jamini Roy (1887-1972) were scooped up for a total of £24,500.

Sold at £620 in a July 2 sale held by Hansons (20% buyer’s premium) was a leather-bound promotional catalogue issued by the Walturdaw Cinema Supply Co of Birmingham.