Auction Reports

An 18th century giltwood mirror proved rather more desirable than its £500-800 estimate suggested when it sold for £21,000 at Moore Allen & Innocent (21% buyer’s premium) in Cirencester on September 24.

Combining the designs of Napoleon’s architect Charles Percier (1764-1838) and the horological skills of Parisian clockmaker Lesieur (fl.1790-1850), this French Empire astronomical double bureau clock took a multi-estimate £9800 at Busby (25% buyer’s premium) in Bridport.

Furniture in Ceylonese style shines thanks to ‘tip-top quality’, market freshness and provenance

A group of novelty Victorian and Edwardian walking sticks owned by the Czilinskys, the London family of specialist carvers, was a sell-out at Ewbank’s (25% buyer’s premium) in Surrey.

A group of 18th century English furniture bought at Christie’s in 1992 provided an interesting measure of today’s market when it returned to auction at Spicers (20% buyer’s premium).

This 17th century Irish marriage locket was probably a gift from Robert Coppinger to his new wife Margarett in 1660.

Special piece comes from historian’s collection including items linked to the family home in Derbyshire

Making tiled tables was something of a tradition in the Bell family.

A late 19th century musical automaton made during the Golden Age of French automata emerged from a Staffordshire house clearance to take £3200 at Richard Winterton (22% buyer’s premium).

Collector built friendships all over the world when amassing a record of two centuries of mining equipment

Relatively few Britannia Standard silver dinner services from the Queen Anne period are available to buy.

The auction record for an Edwardian novelty silver pin cushion beaten twice at the same sale at Kinghams (26% buyer’s premium) in Moreton-in-Marsh.

A lock of hair reputed to belong to Catherine Parr – Henry VIII’s sixth and final wife – drew a good deal of interest at Greenslade Taylor Hunt (19.5% buyer’s premium) in North Petherton, Somerset.

Two bones from the foot of a dodo, the huge flightless bird that went extinct in the Dutch colony of Mauritius c.1690, were offered in Sworders’ (25% buyer’s premium) most recent Out of the Ordinary sale.

A Georgian gold coin that was found aboard HMS Victory among Nelson’s personal possessions fetched £30,000 – three times the top estimate – at Noonans (24% buyer’s premium) in Mayfair.

Belief in divine ability to cure the sick persisted among Stuart heirs in exile even as the Jacobite dream died

Eminent Georgian instrument maker George Adams (c.1709-72) first described his ‘variable’ microscope in 1771 in the fourth edition of his Micrographia Illastrata.

Cartier debuted the Coccinelle ladybug brooch in 1935, and the design – a whimsical and colourful symbol of good fortune – was popular into the 1940s.

Such messages from second-class passengers on the liner are some of the rarest to be offered at auction

Tennants (24% buyer’s premium) recorded some impressive results in its latest Fashion, Costume and Textiles sale.