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Among the best-performing lots at the Woolley & Wallis (25/12% buyer’s premium) Ceramics & Glass sale was a rare Wedgwood black basalt seal.

I have been a collector of early old Sheffield plate of the first period, for more than 50 years, and continue to buy at online UK auctions. I am resident in France.

A round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days, including a sale in Switzerland of Marie Antoinette's bracelets containing 112 diamonds.

Dessert plate taken to St Helena exile by Napoleon demonstrates provenance value

Metz auction house will feature plenty of pieces of Meissen among the ceramics in its sale to be held in Heidelberg from December 9-11.

Prompted by a series of fatal mining disasters in the 19th century, a Royal Commission in 1907 recommended the establishment of a miners’ rescue service.

While the kilns at Sèvres languished during the Revolution, Napoleon recognised the value of a national porcelain factory and used it as an extension of his power.

At a recent sale at Stamford Auction Rooms (20% buyer’s premium) in Lincolnshire this pair of mid-19th century Staffordshire red squirrels sold for a surprise £2000.

Cecil Court, the charming pedestrianised street lined with Victorian shop frontages off London’s Charing Cross Road, has welcomed a new tenant

This KPM porcelain plaque will feature in Woody Auction’s next sale in Kansas on December 4.

Sold for £16,000 in a September 23 sale was an album of 41 watercolour studies of birds produced by William Weston Young (1776-1847).

A Bamfords (20% buyer’s premium) sale included this 3¼in (34cm) tall Chelsea figure from the Red Anchor Senses set created by the Low Countries sculptor Joseph Willems (1710-66), in c.1755.

First sale put together by art world academic attracts encouraging overseas response

A selection of 22 upcoming lots from auctions taking place around the UK.

The new art and antiques online marketplace portal The Bruno Effect (TBE) has launched this month with more than 30,000 items of antiques, vintage and contemporary design from hundreds of dealers across the US, UK and Europe.

Estimated at £200-300 in the belief they were later copies, a pair of Sèvres dishes sold for £9500 at Sworders (25% buyer’s premium).

Estimated at £400-600, a Meissen chinoiserie decorated porcelain snuff box took £12,000 at Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium) in West Sussex.

A small portrait sketch of a young boy by George Henry Harlow (1787-1819) drew lively interest at the recent Fine Art & Antiques sale in Gloucestershire.

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.