Auctions

Geneva’s blue ribbon jewellery sales are not the obvious place to find a suite of mid-18th century English silver dessert plates.

Two-in-one edition of the first and last Jane Austen novels had sat undisturbed in a hallway for over 50 years

This Indo-Portuguese ivory inlaid rosewood side table had last been sold in 1950 when it was bought by the ceramicist Eric James Mellon (1925-2014) while an art student in London.

A rare photograph of the poet and playwright Oscar Wilde taken during his time at Magdalen College, Oxford sold for £4200 (plus 22% buyer’s premium) at a Dominic Winter auction.

An undated cast of Giambologna’s Allegory of Astronomy hammered for a remarkable $500,000 (£367,325) at San Rafael Auction Gallery in California.

A British ‘Dandy Horse’ bicycle made c.1819 was the earliest among a group of four rare 19th century examples on offer at Lewes saleroom Gorringe’s.

Focus on a dedicated auction in Sussex that dispersed the single-owner collection of an Anglo-Norwegian who became fascinated by combat in the Far East

Pioneering book covering daily life in Oman and life of the sultan was actually written by an Italian doctor

A cased Powell and Son/ Tranter 4th model 54 bore percussion revolver was offered in a 14½ x 8in (37 x 20cm) oak case with the name plaque to the lid engraved Alfred Hancocks Lieutenant, 1st Worcestershire Volunteers Rifle Corps.

As a market probably regarded as more ‘traditional’ than many others, you might expect arms and armour collectors to be wary of online-only auctions. However, the latest timed online sales at Olympia Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) of west London show that bidders have embraced the concept.

Although figurative studies, still-lifes and landscapes are most common in the oeuvre of Duncan Grant (1885-1978), it was a work with a somewhat different subject that turned heads at a recent auction in Carmarthen.

Estimated at £500-1000, a “scarce” 10 bore military flintlock musket instead hammered at £9200 in the February 25 auction at Kent saleroom C&T (22% buyer’s premium).