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While English ceramics feature in most provincial sales, November provided four auctions where the market could be looked at overall.

Realistically modelled crib figures are a particular speciality of southern European countries – the Santons of Provence being one well-known example. Another is the famous presepe figures from Naples.

An extraordinary example of British avant-garde clothing made on the eve of the First World War sold for £29,000 (plus 20% buyer’s premium) at Mallams Oxford on December 8.

Strong competition emerged for an oil sketch for Eugène Delacroix’s 'Liberty Leading the People' at Christie’s in London on December 14.

Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi set the highest price ever for an artwork sold at auction when it took $400m ($450m with premium) at Christie’s New York on November 15.

Here we look back at some of the notable people the trade lost in the past 12 months...

A copy of the first published work of the Brontë sisters sold for a record sum at Sotheby’s (25/20/12/5% buyer’s premium) on November 7, just a few months after a new high had been set at another London auction.

The photographic archive of Emile Zola (1840-1902) was offered by Artcurial (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) on December 4 with over 90% of the 75 lots changing hands.

Helen Sutcliffe runs the premises of Sutcliffe Galleries in Harrogate. The family-run business has been trading for more than six decades and specialises in paintings from the 18th century to the present day.

The famous photographs of Henri Cartier-Bresson are no strangers to salerooms but it is not every day that you find 120 lots being offered from a single-owner collection.

A ‘rediscovered’ fifth copy of Martin Waldseemüller’s globe gores from c.1507 was withdrawn from sale last week after a group of academics and dealers in the US expressed doubts over its authenticity.

2017 produced some eye-catching prices in the UK’s regional salerooms. Here are some stand-out lots...

Dealer Vincent Page, the new owner of Antiques on High in Oxford, which was saved from closure earlier this year thanks to a tweet from ATG news reporter Laura Chesters regarding its sale, has been busy since his purchase in August.

MADAM – In your report last week (ATG No 2321) about the forthcoming (December 21) debate in the House of Lords concerning the proposed ivory ban, you refer to “the late Lord Carrington, former chairman of Christie’s”.

David Armour died on November 10 at the age of 87. An art teacher by trade – at Edinburgh Art College he had met many great artists and painted a young aspiring actor called Sean Connery – it was on retirement that his passion for the antique world blossomed.

IACF came up with some interesting leads this year and featured stories included Joe Mitchell, an event administrator for IACF who is an embroiderer, working for international costume designers.

In Europe we covered antiques markets in France and Italy plus those across the pond in the US. In December this column ran a profile on Frenchman Nicolas Martin, founder of an influential global fleamarkets website. In August I visited and wrote about the buzzing Foire de Chatou outside Paris.

Punctuated by moments of real drama, the past 12 months have been as lively as any other in recent memory for the art and antiques trade. Here, ATG journalists analyse some of the high points and challenges

René Lalique’s jewellery showing his characteristic but highly distinctive interpretation of Art Nouveau finds plenty of keen fans.

More than 400 lots of railwayana, assembled from the 1950s onwards by a single collector, will be offered at Norfolk auction house TW Gaze on January 5.