Auctions

Originally from Lymm in Cheshire, Elizabeth Pulman (née Chadd) (1836-1900) is regarded as the first professional female photographer in New Zealand.

Sotheby’s are offering 180 lots of English and continental furniture and works of art from the ‘public and private collections’ of Alan Rubin, director of London and Paris dealership Pelham Galleries.

‘History has been made at Mallams today’ trumpeted the firm’s Twitter feed.

A Steinway grand piano sold for a double-estimate £95,000 on February 24 when Christie’s King Street held a £3m, 146-lot sale of items from the former Queen Anne’s Gate home of musician Sting and his wife Trudie Styler.

Paul Iribe’s ‘Nautile’ armchair is one of the most striking proto-Art Deco designs, with its sleek swept-back lines and low armrests formed as a tight nautilus shell spiral.

This rare early 19th century Chinese gilt decorated export lacquer model of a paddle steamer sold for £7000 at Duke’s of Dorchester.

Bonhams are to launch a new range of monthly Home & Interiors auctions in both their Knightsbridge and Edinburgh rooms.

A new auction high for a ski poster was established at Christie’s South Kensington’s annual Ski sale, held on January 21, when this 1934 colour lithograph advertising the attractions of the Swiss resort of Gstaad sold for £62,000 (plus premium).

Information has come to light proving that a newly-discovered flag due to sell at auction in March was not that flown from HMS Leviathan at the Battle of Trafalgar. It has since been withdrawn from sale.

Leading auctioneers in Ireland and Scotland enjoyed a solid, if unspectacular, year of sales in 2015.

Hansons of Etwall in Derbyshire posted a new house record in the closing days of 2015 with the sale of a 13in (32cm) high Qianlong (1736-95) mark and period famille rose vase for £300,000.

A Union flag, by repute flown by one of Nelson’s warships at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, carries an estimate of £30,000-50,000 at sporting gun specialists Holt’s on March 17.

Among the works drawing interest at the latest round of Old Master and British Paintings sales in London was Joseph Wright of Derby’s (1734-97) ‘A grotto in the gulf of Salerno...’.

The owner of the Bourne Mill Antiques Centre, devastated by fire last month, is hopeful the lower part of the building can reopen later this month.

Topping Bonhams Knightsbridge’s marathon nine-hour sale of items from Hooton Pagnell Hall in South Yorkshire was this 20½in x 2ft 5in (52 x 76cm) watercolour and gouache work by Paul Sandby (1730-1809).

A 1940s Rolex wristwatch whose RAF owner was murdered by the SS after the Great Escape has sold for £165,000 in Buckinghamshire.

Paul César Helleu (1859-1927) is best known for his Belle Epoque portraits of beautiful society women.

A 21in (53cm) pair of late 19th century Meissen figures emblematic of Day and Night after the models by Heinrich Schwabe were sold by Bonhams in support of West Dean College’s full-time ceramics conservation programme.

Dr John C Taylor, the horologist, inventor and clockmaker, has been given the Harrison Medal by the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers for his services to horology.