Auctions

For most of the buttoned-up Grand Tourists who visited Florence in the final years of the 19th century, it was only proper to take home a marble copy of a sober Renaissance or antique masterpiece. The Bazzanti or Frilli galleries were the place to go for a David or a Venus.

Ernest Gimson (1864-1919), a central figure in the British Arts & Crafts Movement, applied a clear, pared-back design approach influenced by William Morris.

Sale of collection with superb furniture included high-quality 18th century items in a different field

A small number of intriguing 18th and 19th century pictures were among the works bringing the strongest competition in terms of the pictures at Gorringe’s (25% buyer’s premium) latest Fine Art & Interiors auction.

The Saturn table lamp was produced for the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. While it is unclear which factory made them (some websites suggest the Houze Glass Company of Port Marion, Pennsylvania), they are considered classics of machine age Art Deco design.

Our selection of stand-out lots at seven upcoming auctions

Our regular listing of books and works on paper sales

Nuremburg Chronicle, Chaucer and a work on witchcraft are among the highlights in Co Offaly saleroom

Collector Michael Blood’s passion for Victorian tiles was ignited at Rufford Abbey in Nottinghamshire when two 19th-century examples pressed into his hands during restoration first caught his eye.

The Zena Kwiatkowski Corrigan collection of tiles was sold by Kinghams (26% buyer’s premium) in Moreton-in-Marsh over 291 lots on October 30.

Offered for sale as ‘a Chinese porcelain teapot’ with a $100-1000 estimate, a famille rose Buddhist ewer with a Qianlong mark hammered for $200,000 at Hill Auction Gallery (30/28/25% buyer’s premium) in Sunrise, Florida, on October 29. No date or period was given.

In 1872 PT Barnum’s ‘Greatest Show on Earth’ became the first circus to travel by rail. It took 65 specially made wagons to haul the production from city to city.

ATG’s pick of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com, featuring both the highest prices over-estimate and the top prices paid online.