Auctions

How letters related to wars bring a connection that history books cannot match

After a long and illustrious naval career, it is a pity that Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell is best known for the circumstances of his death.

A selection of upcoming books, maps and prints at auctions around the UK and overseas.

A brief history of maps designed to communicate ideas over geographical accuracy

On May 20 Hindman's Modern Design sale encompasses works by American and European designers including those from France, Italy and Scandinavia.

Most prints are closely connected with an artist’s wider oeuvre. A few good Welsh examples were on offer at Rogers Jones (22% buyer’s premium) in Cardiff on April 17.

Convoys to protect merchant vessels have a long history in naval conflict. A letter sold at Kent saleroom C&T (22% buyer’s premium) in a timed Military Books, Ephemera & Photographs Auction reveals Royal Navy ships in action back in 1808.

Hermann Historica in Grasbrunn, on the outskirts of Munich, is holding its extensive spring auction from May 26-28 and June 1-2.

The increasingly contentious issue of selling Benin works of art at auction raised its head again last week after an ancestral plaque catalogued as 16th or 17th century was withdrawn from an East Sussex sale.

The latest silver sale at Woolley & Wallis – first scheduled for November – included a collection of more than 300 lots from a deceased estate.

Bonhams has moved its annual Greek art auction to France from London following Brexit.

A group of nearly 200 early images and ephemera by the pioneering photographer William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-77) more than quadrupled its lower estimate at Sotheby’s in New York.

The best competition at a recent mixed-category sale came for two Old Masters.

Lyon & Turnbull’s May 14 sale in London includes this flambe glazed pear-shaped bottle vase that carries a Qianlong mark and may be of the period.

This late Ming (17th century) jade water pot in the form of a chimera will be offered by Dreweatts on May 19.