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A poignant background story or strong suggestion of original ownership greatly adds to the appeal of early jewellery finds often unearthed by metal detectors

Boosted by the contents of a fine country home, the autumn sale at Cheffins (22.5% buyer’s premium) enjoyed moments of floor-to-ceiling success.

Just a little less famous than Fry’s 'Five Boys' image is the illustration by Tom Browne of a multi-class group outside a sweetshop with the line from 'Troilus and Cressida: One touch of Nature makes the whole World kin'.

Although the Hugo Lonitz factory produced a range of domestic tablewares and small collectables, it is best known for its naturalistic majolica groups, particularly animal and bird examples modelled in lifelike size and detail.

Auction includes collection of Modernist works breaking away from south Asian tradition

Masterpiece London regulars attend Hong Kong event despite civic unrest

Emporium Antiques in Liskeard currently has on its site an item of local interest. This is a memorial shield, below, to the Honourable Thomas Agar-Robartes (1880-1915) who was elected as a Liberal MP for his home town of Bodmin in the 1906 general election.

Despite surface dirt and other condition issues, a painting of Naples drew a dramatic bidding competition at a recent auction in Rome.

Interest in glyphic art, which reached its collecting apogee during the Grand Tour collecting, is resurgent once more.

Pictured here is a Renaissance ring set with five point-cut diamonds – typical of the most opulent jewels produced in 16th century Venice. It forms part of the 35-piece private collection of precious stone dealer Benjamin Zucker that will be offered for sale at Les Enluminures in New York from October 24-November 9.

Variety was certainly in evidence in a West Sussex sale, where the teenage journal of a young stained-glass maker, two broadside ballads and an illustrated dummy for 'Down with Skool!' all brought much higher than predicted bids.

Though his works are now revered and highly valued in his native land, Edgar Allan Poe spent most of his writing life in debt. There were, however, a few months in the early 1840s when, while working in Philadelphia as an editor and contributor on 'Graham’s Magazine', he enjoyed some short-lived financial success.

Our weekly selection from salerooms.

Built in the 1960s, the family-owned Bedruthan Hotel at Mawgan Porth, near Newquay on the north Cornish coast, is set in a dramatic clifftop location overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

MADAM – I wholly concur with the sentiment expressed by your reader Robert Pugh (ATG No 2407) that ‘good luck’ stories are just as often ‘bad luck’ stories.

Offered with an a/f catalogue caveat, this early 20th century marine chronometer, below, quadrupled expectations at Chichester saleroom Henry Adams (20% buyer’s premium).

A 120 million-year-old fossilised ammonite is among the selection of decorative items on offer at the Chester fair following a change in ownership and focus.

'Le vol de pensée' (2010), shown right, is offered for $25,000 at Ink Asia on the stand of Singapore gallery iPreciation. The framed ink-on-paper composition, 2ft 7in x 2ft 2in (79 x 65cm), is by Gao Xingjian, a Chinese-born artist working in France.

MADAM – I was much taken with the George Du Maurier ‘aesthetic’ drawing at Wallis & Wallis (ATG No 2409).

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period September 18-25, 2019. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.