Auctions

In his book 'Oriental Rugs' (1998), textiles scholar Murray Eiland Jr lamented the challenges in dating and identifying carpets woven in south-east India.

This coin, from the period known as ‘The Anarchy’, was discovered by a metal detectorist in a Yorkshire field in March.

Although now known as Gainsborough chairs, generous walnut and upholstered armchairs were often referred to by contemporaries as ‘French’ chairs, as the most elaborate styles were based on French rococo.

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.

The auction firm Peschetau-Badin (22.5% buyer’s premium) is known for holding dedicated ceramics sales and offered a two-day auction of European ceramics.

Sold for a record €260,000 (£234,235) in Hamburg was a copy of Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer’s Speculum nauticum super navigatione maris occidentalis…

The Gros & Delettrez (30% buyer’s premium) auction of Art Deco held in Paris on January 22 offered works from the collection of a gallery owner.

In the absence of face-to-face contact, 2020 was a difficult year for the numismatics market as a whole... but the auction business found a way to thrive.

A record for a British token was set at Dix Noonan Webb on May 26 when this copper coin – the only specimen known in commerce – took £7000 (estimate £400-500).

Quartet of West Country works featured in the same sale as our £105,000 cover star

Work produced in Brussels in the 1530s by a master of illumination soars way over estimate in Sotheby's London auction

A selection of 16 upcoming lots from auctions taking place around the UK and Ireland.

Showing that not all the best UK numismatic action takes place in London, the first known gold coin of Caratacus – unearthed by a metal detectorist a year earlier in a Berkshire field – sold at auction for a record £71,000 an auction in Norwich.

Roma Numismatics set a new record for a classical coin when a Brutus Eid Mar-type gold aureus, struck shortly after the murder of Julius Caesar, took £2.7m in October.

Though incomplete and in a decorative 19th century binding, a very desirable early Bible impressed at Chiswick Auctions (25/12% buyer’s premium).

A sale to be held by Jack-Philippe Ruellan in Vannes in Brittany will feature this Olympic torch from the 10th Winter Olympics held in Grenoble in 1968.

On March 23 Christie’s France, in association with booksellers Jacques Quentin (Geneva) and Benoît Forgeot (Paris), will offer the first part of the poetic library of Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller.