Auctions

This Dutch East Indies gold mounted tortoiseshell betel box hammered at £15,000 (plus 24% buyer’s premium) on the opening day of the sale held by Mellors & Kirk in Nottingham on February 11-12.

The fashion for eye miniatures – or lover’s eyes – is said to have begun with a politically and socially unacceptable royal affair.

A gentleman (Dukatenscheißer) with his trousers pulled down excreting a gilt metal coin from his bottom or a composition nodder of a grotesque women beating a child might not be for everyone.

Candy and Andy were just like any other children in the late 1960s, except that they lived with two pandas called Mr and Mrs Bearanda and owned a Mini called Stripey.

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

Estimated at £200-300 but sold for £4200 at Charterhouse (25% buyer’s premium) in Sherborne, Dorset, were two design books from the Royal Doulton workshop floor.

Teacher turned designer was part of the Royal Doulton team creating some of the first HN figures

A 16th century bible in German was the most expensive book sold at auction in the UK in December.

The original 1934 design for 'Le Genie de la Mer' by Carlo Sarrabezolles (1888-1971) was meant for the ocean liner Normandie and is currently on display outside the CMA CGM Tower in Marseille.

Paintings depicting humble carpenter and not-so-humble locksmith benefit from market freshness

A stylised still-life by Robert Colquhoun (1914-62) was one of a number of good quality Scottish pictures generating interest at a recent sale at Taylors Auctions (26% buyer’s premium) in Montrose, Angus.

Our selection of lots from 14 upcoming auctions

Sir Bruno Welby (b.1928), a member of both the English Ceramic Circle and the French Porcelain Society, has bought European porcelain since the 1950s.