Auctions

I read with some interest your recent piece on Rosa Bonheur’s painting of a donkey and its sale in New York (ATG No 2680).

Carl (1883-1946) and Rosa Askonas (1891-1980), were the toast of 1920s Austrian society.

The sale at Bellmans (25% buyer’s premium) in Billingshurst, West Sussex on February 17 included a small silver gilt rococo-style cream jug of a type that remains something of an enigma.

Letter to Queen Elizabeth I written after Robert Dudley’s marriage lacks the earlier flirtatious tone

This early 18th century portrait by Thomas Gibson (1680-1751) shows Lady Bridget Poulett (1702-73) in her prime.

The craftsman-made Yorkshire oak furniture of Robert Thompson continues to be in high demand at auction.

Our selection of lots on offer in eight upcoming auctions

The Fine Jewellery sale at Dreweatts (26% buyer’s premium) in Newbury on March 19 included two quite different lots from the subcontinent - and both were well received.

Two very different works offered in Oxford now have new owners from Australia and continental Europe

Noke’s portrait of a humiliated child was one of the very first models from the Royal Doulton HN series

Before his death on St Helena, Napoleon Bonaparte said: “What nothing will erase, what will live forever, is my Civil Code.”

As readers may recall from previous articles on these pages, when it comes to the works of the great ornithological artist Archibald Thorburn (1860-1935) depictions of game birds tend to be the most commercial subjects.

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

Chinese chairs smaller and less formal than the ‘yoke-back’ or ‘horseshoe-back’ armchairs are referred to as rose chairs (meiguiyi) or writing chairs (wenyi).

Among the most desirable of all Scottish garden ornaments are the Garnkirk urns, a pair of neoclassical vases first made for the Great Exhibition of 1851.

A copy of what is regarded as probably the rarest edition of the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack came up at Knights Sporting Auctions (20% buyer’s premium) on March 21-23.

A work catalogued as “an 18th-century French School portrait of a gentleman” went for Can$32,000 (£17,180) at a Montreal sale, well above its broad guide of Can$1000-2000.

Far more fluent than us in the language of jewellery and stones, Georgians and the Victorians would immediately have made the link between snakes and eternal love.

Georgian giltwood mirrors were the big winners at Doyle New York’s (28% buyer’s premium) January 28 auction of British and European art and antiques.

A spectacular Wedgwood Fairyland lustre vase in the Dragon King pattern has sold for $87,500 (£67,900) in Kansas.