Auctions

Two impressive golden bowls presented by the king of Siam to an enterprising Danish admiral, businessman and politician star in Bruun Rasmussen’s May 28 auction in Copenhagen.

Inherited Dutch Old Masters offered alongside recently acquired modern works by artists such as Walter Sickert, Edward Seago and Gerald Kelly proved a winning formula at Dreweatts’ (25% buyer’s premium) country house dispersal held on May 1 at Donnington Priory.

Discoloured, stained and in a crudely restored old binding, a scarce hunting work of 1704 was sold for a much higher than expected £1400 at a recent Hansons (20% buyer’s premium) sale.

Billed as the first printed edition of the most authoritative medical text in the Islamic world, a 1593 copy of a work known in the English-speaking world as Avicenna’s ‘Canon of Medicine’ was part of a recent London sale.

In any ‘top 10’ list of 30th birthday party themes, a 1980s or ‘90s leitmotif ranks high.

Target of a London silver specialist, this pair of late Victorian silver fluted vases was the best-seller at East Sussex auction house Burstow & Hewett (20% buyer’s premium).

One of the more successful acts in a recent American magic and conjuring sale involved the appearance among the literary contributions of a doubly inscribed copy of Harry Kellar’s 'A Magician’s Tour' of 1886.

Painted by Lt Gen Henry Hope Crealock (1831-91), this 6ft 8in (2m) wide pen and ink drawing is an eyewitness account of The Action of Bareilly – the battle of the last stronghold of Indian independence in 1858.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

Codes are there to be broken, as the Second World War British team at Bletchley Park proved by cracking the German Enigma machines.

Topped by an eight-times estimate £19,500 Momoyama ‘Namban’ cabinet (ATG No 2391), Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood’s (21% buyer’s premium) sale in Exeter on April 16 had other estimate-busting lots from abroad.

An oil in gilt frame by John Thomas Serres (1759-1825) of 'The Entrance to Plymouth Sound' offered at Charles Miller’s (24% buyer’s premium) April 30 auction represented a primitive but effective early sat nav for ships.

A classic oil on canvas of yacht racing by renowned British painter Montague Dawson (1890-1973) was top-seller of The Marine Sale at Bonhams Knightsbridge (27.5/25/20/13.9% buyer’s premium) on May 1.

MADAM – David Southwell (Letters, ATG No 2392) makes a good point but there are reasons for auctioneers refusing credit cards.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from May 21-June 2, 2019.

This pair of half-length portraits by Sir Peter Lely (1618-80) features in Thomaston Place Auction Galleries’ next sale to be held in Maine from May 31-June 2.

This intricately detailed model of an English butcher’s shop, below, is part of a group of items consigned from the estate of a private collector to the June 15 auction of toys held by Pook & Pook in association with Noel Barrett.

Almost wholly reliant on slavery, the tobacco industry was the subtle target of British Abolitionists 50 years before Britain outlawed slavery and nearly a century before the American Civil War.

When it comes to buying limited-edition prints by LS Lowry (1887-1976), those produced by one publisher in particular stand out above the rest for collectors.

A sale of photographica and scientific instruments held at Reading’s Madejski Stadium included a rare work in the history of the microscope.