Auction Reports

Created shortly after the 1830 Revolution, when Louis Philippe ruled as ‘king of the French’, the ‘Service de la Chevalerie’ was a great example of romantic historicism.

Among the earliest examples of Australian gold rush jewellery are the simple signet rings sold to miners in the settlement of Ballarat in the 1850s as a memento of the boomtown days.

A sword presented to one of only three Jewish winners of the Victoria Cross in the Second World War has sold for a hammer price of £7200 at Plymouth saleroom Eldreds (20% buyer’s premium).

Before independence in 1947, the Naga hill tribes of north-east India were considered an exotic society, radically different in culture and beliefs from the better-known Hindu peoples of the plains and renowned for their fierce resistance to British rule.

The sale at Bellmans (25% buyer’s premium) in Billingshurst, West Sussex on February 17 included a small silver gilt rococo-style cream jug of a type that remains something of an enigma.

The craftsman-made Yorkshire oak furniture of Robert Thompson continues to be in high demand at auction.

Chinese chairs smaller and less formal than the ‘yoke-back’ or ‘horseshoe-back’ armchairs are referred to as rose chairs (meiguiyi) or writing chairs (wenyi).

Blacking ink was widely used in the 19th century for the cleaning and polishing of boots and shoes, floors and doorsteps.

A Renaissance gilt bronze medal made to mark the marriage of Queen Mary I (1516-58) and King Philip II (1527-98) sold for £15,500 at Sloane Street Auctions (26.5% buyer’s premium).

An early 18th century onion-shaped decanter or carafe offered at Halls (24% buyer’s premium) in Shrewsbury was of particular interest for a point-engraved inscription to the body. It read 'The Kit Kat Club at the Fountain Tavern on the Strand'.

The YZ-branded range of novelties – a whimsical selection of ashtrays, match holders, pipe holders, pipe racks etc fashioned in tropical hardwoods and cherry amber bakelite – was produced by walking stick and cane maker Henry Howell and Company in the 1920s-30s.

In a market that waxes and wanes, recent sales suggest collectors are active and pushing up prices

A rare example of 17th century Newcastle silver holloware sold for £7500 at Chiswick Auctions’ (26% buyer’s premium) latest specialist sale of Silver and Objects of Vertu.

A single-owner collection of Venini glassware led Roseberys’ (26/25/20% buyer’s premium) first Design auction of the year in West Norwood.

An elaborate 18th century French skeleton clock tentatively linked with two leading names working in Paris during the golden age of French clockmaking led a recent Kidson Trigg’s (20% buyer’s premium) sale in Swindon.

A Roman marble bust of the tyrannical Emperor Commodus attracted a flurry of bids at Mallams (25% buyer’s premium) in Oxford.

Stoneware vases and jugs from the famed Martin Brothers also show their sense of style and character

This silver desk clock designed in the form of a Rolls-Royce radiator grille with a red enamel badge and a miniature Spirit of Ecstasy mascot perched on top is thought to have been given as a Christmas gift by the British luxury car maker to one of its distributors.

Focus on two flower paintings created in Kent by different artists but offered at the same local saleroom

Two English Delftware plates, described on BBC’s Antiques Roadshow a decade ago as “as rare as you can get”, went under the hammer at Woolley & Wallis (26% buyer’s premium) on February 5.