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Where scientific instruments are concerned, recent highlights such as Albert Einstein’s telescope or a working example of the Apple 1 computer could have been selected. However, we begin instead with the improved, four-rotor Enigma cipher machine.

“Modern British sculpture is making extremely good money at the moment – it is a market moving as quickly, if not slightly quicker, than paintings.” So said Philip Smith, department head of Mallams (20% buyer’s premium).

While the end of last year was chock-full of auctions, this winter has been even busier.

Copy of a letter to the proposed ivory ban consultation (which is now closed):

John Newton (January 22, 1947-December 14, 2017), the well-known ceramics specialist who exhibited at fairs across the country for many years, has died after a long battle with cancer.

Qualifying for the oxymoronic term ‘giant carriage clock’, the 8in (20cm) tall gilt-metal carriage clock shown below had the quality to trigger a bidding battle between specialists at Chilcotts (19.5% buyer’s premium) in Honiton on December 2.

The most desirable of all porcelain plaques produced by KPM in the late 19th century are those that leave little to the imagination. However, evidence of their continued popularity across many different subject matters came in the form of this example below.

Sculptor Boaz Vaadia (1951-2016) was an Israel-born artist who worked in New York in the second half of the 20th century.

The market for works by Ernst Wilhelm Nay (1902-68) was pushed into a new dimension at recent German auctions.

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period December 14-20, 2017. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

A market-fresh figure study by Mod Brit giant LS Lowry (1887-1976), pictured below, topped the sale at Woolley & Wallis.

Paintings by major exponents of Expressionism almost invariably occupy many of the top slots in the modern and contemporary art sales staged in late autumn across Germany and Austria.

The potential star of the show at the sale of Selected Works held by Grisebach (25% buyer’s premium) in Berlin on November 30 lived up to its expectations.

Beloved of TV antiques programmes and of bidders knowing the lots are absolutely fresh to market, there are few phrases to stir the blood at an auction as much as ‘from the attic’.

The so-called ‘Great Bardfield Artists’, named after the Essex village where a community of painters and designers lived from the 1930s onwards, has become fertile ground for local auction house Sworders (22% buyer’s premium).

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

Following the multi-million-pound sale at Sotheby’s in 2015, more items from West Horsley Place, the remarkable Grade I listed mansion in Surrey, are to be sold at auction to raise money for urgent repairs.

Welsh artist Clive Hicks-Jenkins’ recent series of screen-prints are a fitting subject for a January exhibition.

Overall, a Voices of the 20th Century sale held by Bonhams New York (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) on December 6 was rather disappointing, with only 100 of 264 lots sold (and only six of the 55 Russian lots). However, among the more curious entries was the ‘Paradummy’ pictured below.

The Marquis de Sade’s manuscript, '120 Days of Sodom', and André Breton’s 'Surrealist Manifestos' have been declared national treasures by the French government and were withdrawn from a planned auction.