Auctions

Prompted by the uniform penny post and the new printing process of chromolithography, the Victorian era was the heyday of the Christmas card.

Lurking among the equestrian portraits in a sale held by The Sporting Art Auction (17.5% buyer’s premium) was an atypical work by Sir Alfred Munnings (1878-1959).

A recent sale marked the first time that the Geneseo, New York, house Cottone Auctions (22% buyer’s premium) has handled a piece of René Lalique (1860-1945) jewellery.

A group of works by George Richmond (1809-96) offered at auction at the end of last year showed plenty of life remains in the market for the London-born painter.

A Japonisme foo dog vase by Émile Gallé (1846-1904) hammered for $35,000 (£26,440) against a guide of $3000-5000 at Rago (27% buyer’s premium) in Lambertville, New Jersey.

Doulton figures and jugs depicting the famous and not-so-familiar include sought-after rarities

Little is known about Soiree Cigarettes or the firm behind them and it is only thanks to the collectable cards it issued in Mauritius that its name appears in web search results today.

“Very few things make me that excited. But this was a really exciting thing.” Tom Sage Jr’s faith was rewarded in September.

Once renowned for achievements wearing goalkeeping gloves, Pat Jennings (b.1945) achieved an auction white-glove result when his memorabilia collection sold out at Budds (24% buyer’s premium).

As ruler of an empire on which the sun never set, Queen Victoria adopted the Indian practice of giving Kashmiri shawls as gifts to visiting dignitaries and coming-of-age and wedding presents to her friends at court.

In February in New York, Sotheby’s will offer for sale one of the most important illustrated Hebrew Prayerbooks to come to market: The Rothschild Vienna Mahzor.

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

Our selection of lots from 12 upcoming auctions

While not instantly familiar to many non-American readers, The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams (1881-1944) has never been out of print and its many reprints have sold over a million copies in the US alone.

Paul Parker will be fondly remembered by many England fans of a certain vintage for his role in the 1990 World Cup campaign (ignore the deflection over Peter Shilton for West Germany’s semi-final opener).

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

A rare Georgian brass microscope by Edinburgh maker John Clark will join an important Dutch collection after its sale in the Cotswolds.