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A claim by former auctioneer turned art-advisor Simon de Pury that he is owed $10m for facilitating the sale of a work by Paul Gauguin was heard before the High Court in London last week.

Originally entered for a general sale at Charterhouse Auctions (20% buyer’s premium), a distinctive little walnut table with brass leg attachments caught the eye of auctioneer Richard Bromell who diverted it to the fine sale in the Sherborne rooms on June 22.

“It is something, at the age of 31, to be among the most discussed, most successful, most promising, most admired and most hated British artists.” So wrote the critic Charles Lewis Hind about the war artist CRW Nevinson (1889-1946) in 1920.

A moment of good old-fashioned saleroom drama emerged at Christie’s antiquities sale on July 5 when an Etruscan bronze mirror, estimated at £10,000-15,000, sold at £390,000 (plus 25/20/12% buyer’s premium). The buyer was a European institution.

Entered by a leading UK college, two very similar pairs of mid-18th century mahogany lecterns, one illustrated above, became the focus of two major West Country dealers at Tayler & Fletcher’s (20% buyer’s premium) June 22 sale at Bourton-in-the-Water.

A June 16 sale at Lawrences (22% buyer’s premium) of Crewkerne included theological works from the library of Edward Tottenham (1810-53), a cleric whose parishes were in Bath and Wells.

Highly collectable in itself, this 1920s car showroom lightbox advertising sign, right, had extra appeal to one bidder at automobilia specialists Richard Edmonds’ (20% buyer’s premium) sale at Chippenham on June 16.

A further selection of children’s annuals from the Brenda Butler archive, characterised as usual by superb condition, provided some of the highlights of a May 2 sale at Comic Book Auctions (16% buyer’s premium).

Sold for £55,000 by Bonhams (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) on June 14 was a newly discovered and very decorative portolan chart on vellum of the Mediterranean.

From the moustache spoon and the nose-shaping device to the washing machine, the period following The Great Exhibition of 1851 was a time of prolific invention in the UK.

One of the earliest examples of the lucrative tartan tourism, which dates back to George IV’s visit to Edinburgh in 1822 and was turbo-charged by Queen Victoria’s love of the Highlands, were the sycamore boxes and trinkets made in small factories in the little Ayrshire town of Mauchline.

Over the last four months, a steady trickle of coaching scenes has been making its way onto the market via John Nicholson’s (24% buyer’s premium).

The island of St Helena featured in a folding plate from a 1598, first English edition of Jan Huygen van Linschoten’s famous Itinerario – published as Discours of Voyages into ye Easte & West Indies – offered by Ketterer Kunst (20% buyer’s premium) on May 22.

ATG’s weekly selection of items on sale at auctions and dealerships.

ATG’s weekly selection of items on sale at auctions and dealerships.

Like many of the world’s major art markets these days, Paris concentrates activity in the Asian art field into series at specific times of the year in an attempt to attract those all-important buyers from Mainland China.

Preserved in a fine contemporary binding of crimson morocco gilt that seems likely to have been specially commissioned by the artist from Pasqual Carsi y Vidal, a leading Madrid binder, a rare presentation set of Goya’s Los Caprichos prints sold for $500,000 (£393,700) at Christie’s New York (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) on June 15.

Temperatures are usually high in London when the Society of Fine Art Auctioneers and Valuers (SOFAA) hosts its biennial dinner and this year was no exception. The heat outside didn’t dissuade attendees from donning black tie and high heels to the event at the Royal Thames Yacht Club in Knightsbridge on June 30.