Auctions

A tiny Oxfam shop in Headington, Oxfordshire, was celebrating after a set of 12 books dropped off by an anonymous donor later sold at Bonhams for £13,000 (£16,640 with premium).

A substantial collection of 18th and 19th century Cape silver, made by European silversmiths practising in South Africa, is coming for sale at Strauss & Co in Johannesberg.

Courtesy of Dava Sobel’s 1995 best-seller, the compelling story of a Yorkshire horologist’s struggle to receive a prize for creating a reliable and accurate method for determining longitude at sea is well known.

Two separate lots at the recent books and manuscripts sale held by TW Gaze (26.4% inc VAT) in Diss, Norfolk sold at £20,000.

Our regular listing of UK and Irish books and works on paper sales

The demand for a well-documented genre painting by the 17th century Flemish artist Jan Steen surprised the auctioneers at Döbritz (26% buyer’s premium) in Frankfurt.

An unusual, possibly unique stereo viewer from the last decade of the 19th century attracted numerous bids at Auction Team Breker (21.8% buyer’s premium) in Cologne.

Only a very few coin dies have survived from antiquity so there was great interest in the Hellenistic examples offered by Apollo Art Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) on June 8.

Numerous bidders at a recent Mehlis (24% buyer’s premium) auction in Plauen were not prepared to let a late 19th century vase by Emile Gallé get away for the estimated €350.

Stock of retiring dealer offered at auction includes items with fascinating backgrounds

A spring sale at Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer (25% buyer’s premium) in Basel was devoted to works of art from an impressive, wide-ranging Swiss collection.

A recently discovered floral still-life by Jan Davidsz de Heem sold for €2.8m.

Roger Godchaux is regarded as one of the most accomplished French animalier sculptors of the first half of the 20th century.

Our selection of lots from upcoming auctions

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

Since his inception in 1939, Batman, the Caped Crusader, has never really been out of fashion.

The workers who were given the task in 1869 of demolishing a medieval patrician house in the Bavarian city of Regensburg found much more than they had expected.