Features

This gold ring mounted with an oval intaglio of the Roman god Mars made a multi-estimate £9000 at a sale of jewellery at Salisbury saleroom Woolley & Wallis (25% buyer’s premium).

This over life-sized marble bust depicts Emperor Didius Julianus, who ruled the Roman empire for just a few short months in the year 193AD. His fleeting 66-day reign took place during the tumultuous period known as ‘The Year of the Five Emperors’ and came to a grisly end when he was murdered by a common soldier.

Although the antiquities market is more stringently regulated than ever before, the possibility of illicit material continues to cause concern for collectors of antiquities. This places a greater financial value on pieces with long watertight provenances.

Supplying the market with the fresh, quality material that chimes with current collecting preferences is a continuing challenge for auctioneers working in the Asian art sector.

Some early Chinese objects are included in the Timeline Auctions sale in Harwich, Essex on May 28.

A matched pair of Chelsea mugs cropped up in an Andrew Smith’s (21% buyer’s premium) sale in Hampshire.

Estimated at £400-600, this ebonised chiffonier sold for £45,800 at the Mander (24% buyer’s premium inc VAT) auction in Newton, Suffolk.

Halls’ Country House & Asian Art sale in Shrewsbury on May 15 will include a 21in (54cm) Kangxi famille verte vase decorated with a panorama of Asiatic birds, butterflies and dragonflies.

This Meiji period (1868-1912) bronze of a comical seated monkey, holding an inro and netsuke that he inspects by lifting a pair of spectacles was a recent valuation day find for Fieldings of Stourbridge.

Included in a mixed-discipline sale held in Paris by Daguerre (28% buyer’s premium inc VAT) at Drouot was a Sèvres bough pot in soft paste porcelain.

Works by Namikawa Yasuyuki underline how buyers are aiming at the very best when it comes to the Japanese market ahead of a series of UK sales.

Estimated at £300-500, a finely decorated Qing famille rose pen box and cover was knocked down for £33,000 at a recent sale at John Nicholson’s (25% buyer’s premium).

A Chinese ‘sleeper’ emerged in a Vintage and General Sale at Gardiner Houlgate (20% buyer’s premium), Corsham, near Bath on April 25 courtesy of a textbook ‘scholar’s’ object.

Robert S Huthart, the Newcastle-born manager of the Hong Kong department store conglomerate Lane Crawford, was first introduced to netsuke on a visit to Tokyo when he was given of a copy of 'The Wonderful World of Netsuke' by Raymond Bushell.

This 3ft 10in (1.15m) wide Qianlong (1736-95) three-colour lacquer throne merits a catalogue of its own and an £800,000-1.2m estimate at Christie’s in London on May 14.

The 12th edition of the International Antiques Fair takes place in Hong Kong this month at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. It runs from May 24-28, coinciding with the main spring auction series held by Christie’s.

A good example of the attraction of a dated and named inscription was evident at Woolley & Wallis’ (25% buyer’s premium) recent ceramics auction in Salisbury.

The highlight of a dedicated ceramics sale held at Drouot by Fraysse (22.17% buyer’s premium) was this large 16 x 22in (41 x 56cm) early French, Moustiers, faience basin made at the Clerissy factory.

Henry Aldridge & Son will offer items from the Skidmore collection at its May 18 sale – including these pieces of late 19th century Chinese ‘export’ silver.

At Donnington Priory on May 23, Dreweatts will hold a sale of Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art where this 17th or 18th century bronze ‘dragon’ censer and original stand, with Xuande four-character mark, is pitched at £8000-12,000.