Auctions

François Nicole (b.1766), the Geneva-based pioneer of the key-wind musical box, is thought to have made around 440 boxes during his working life, but only around 60 are known today.

The sale at Thomas R Callan in Ayr on December 3-4 included this extraordinary Victorian carved throne chair estimated at £2000-3000.

More than 70 years after it was last seen in public, an Imperial Roman sculpture dubbed ‘The Hamilton Aphrodite’ has set a record for any ancient marble at auction.

London auction offers fascinating bronzes from a little-appreciated collecting field.

This lacquer panel by the French Art Deco master of the medium, Jean Dunand (1877-1942), will feature in a sale held by Ferri at Drouot on December 17.

On December 2, as part of its So Unique series launched in April, Millon held a single-lot sale in Paris.

In the collectable ceramics market colour can count for a lot.

This late 18th century Channel Islands silver coffee pot has marks for the Jersey silversmith Jacques Quesnel I.

This large-scale model of a late 19th century Australian stamp mill is signed for the Ivanhoe Gold Corporation Foundry.

A live online October 28 sale held by Forum (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) attracted a much higher than expected bid for this small and rather browned poster promising that, for one day only, visitors to The ‘Stockton House’ could view not only the preserved head of the renowned bandit Joaquin, but ‘the hand of Three Fingered Jack!’

This oil on canvas of a white-robed young couple by the Czech artist Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939) was sold for $800,000 (£601,505) in Chicago on December 2.

Among a number of Indian miniatures causing a stir at London sales this autumn was a painting of a camel and its rider.

This series of Peruvian paintings of the 14 Inca emperors plus the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro featured in a sale held in Barcelona .

A large and impressive painting of a lush Indonesian tropical landscape by Raden Saleh (1811-80) was sold in Paris on December 2 for €1.7m (£1.45m).

The Anglo-Croatian sculptor Oscar Nemon (1906-85) first met Sir Winston Churchill when holidaying in Marrakech in 1951.

Lyon & Turnbull’s (25/20% buyer’s premium) auction to disperse the contents of Lowood House may well be best remembered for the early 16th century maiolica dish which fetched a mighty £1.04m – reported on the front page of ATG No 2513.

Edition of Shakespeare’s works from 1663 heads varied selection in Cambridge.

Our weekly selection of previews from salerooms.

Genre scene sets a new high for French artist inspired by Dutch and Flemish paintings.