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Francis Towne watercolour was one of his many works to have gone through Agnews

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

Munich auction house Hermann Historica (25% buyer’s premium) regularly turns up showstopping lots of arms and armour and the star of the latest sales series was a weapon that was always designed to impress on every level.

Bidding on an exceptionally fine, virtually mint first edition of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone offered in the special Firsts into Film section of a December 9-10 sale opened at $75,000.

Milestone Auctions recorded some buoyant prices for rare variants of toy motorcycles in its sale last October (see ATG No 2516).

A round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days, including two initiatives returning as in-person events

The most unusual armour lot to emerge in recent sales was the late 16th century German brass parade cuirass which made £86,000 at Thomas Del Mar (20% buyer’s premium) in London on December 8.

Auction totals for 2021 underline the strong recovery since the start of the pandemic

The surprise lot at the sale held on December 11 by Ripon auction house Elstob & Elstob (22% buyer’s premium) was this 19th century Russian hunting dagger.

Phillips has appointed Jean-Paul Engelen to the newly created role of president, Americas. In addition, he will continue as worldwide co-head of 20th century and Contemporary art.

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.

Angling and fishing fans will be familiar with the firm Hardy of Alnwick. In 1872 William Hardy set up shop as a gunsmith.

Estimated at just £60-100, a pair of Georgian portrait miniatures sold online for £2900 at Amersham Auctions (17.5% buyer’s premium) on January 6.

Two British sporting scenes by French artist Raoul Dufy (1877-1953) were among the best-sellers in auctions held within a day of each other on either side of the Atlantic.

A significant collection of works by George Bissill (1896-1973), the Derbyshire miner who enjoyed some fleeting success as an artist in the 1920s-30s but who later died largely forgotten, emerged recently at Mallams (25% buyer’s premium) in Oxford.

Superb set of the Dickens classic was painstakingly assembled as originally issued

Offered at Sotheby’s (26/20/13.9% buyer’s premium) in an online sale that ran until December 1 under the title of The Fantasy World of Arthur Rackham was a collection of 31 original ink and watercolour artworks by the artist from the collection of American photographer Shirley Carter Burden (1908-89).

On December 13, 2021, the art village of St James’s lost one of its most colourful characters.

Arms and armour sales often throw out interesting talking points in the way of accessories.

A rare black and white Disney production image of Mickey Mouse will feature as one of the highlights in the Animation Art auction at Heritage in Dallas from February 4-7.