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ATG's Review of the Year – the top stories and key sales in November 2018.

Very much a buyer’s market these days, English ceramics in their various forms are affordable to collectors on modest budgets.

Packed with job lots in many categories, the book section of a three-day antiques auction held at Mitchells (20% buyer’s premium) in the Cumbrian market town of Cockermouth heralded an intent to make such sales a regular feature.

‘The Fall of the House of Usher’, ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’, ‘The Mystery of the Marie Roget’ and ‘The Purloined Letter’ are among now famous works that are to be found in the newly discovered first issue copy of Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales shown below.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

Two south-west of England antiques dealers have launched an ‘Antiques Watchdog’ site designed to raise awareness of shoplifting in shops and centres around the country.

Tapestry and textiles specialist Franses has won a landmark Supreme Court case against its landlord, allowing it to continue to operate from the London gallery that has been its home for more than 25 years.

A series of portraits by some of the biggest names in the Old Master market led the way at the latest sales in this category in London. Among them were two versions of a Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641) portrait – one fully ascribed to the artist.

Two under-catalogued Sino-Tibetan bronzes illuminated the regional saleroom scene with multi-estimate sums in the final days of November.

Believed to have been in the same family since new, a rare 19th century Jules Steiner doll and her trunk of clothes demolished the estimate at a wide-ranging sale at Lawrences (22% buyer’s premium) at Crewkerne on November 16.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

Paul Garner of Garners Antiques has a showroom in Rutland which offers art, antiques and British handmade furniture.

Bram van der Stok MBE was not only the most decorated aviator in Dutch history and one of just three men to successfully flee POW Camp Stalag Luft III in the ‘Great Escape’, but also a proud member of the Caterpillar Club.

A toy engine offered at North Yorkshire saleroom Tennants (20% buyer’s premium) sold for what is thought to be a new world record for a Hornby Dublo locomotive.

This very rare bear shown below made a very high price for such a small fellow – just 14cm (5½in) high.

It is 40 years since 19th century potlids were the collectables of choice but there is still a very active market for them.

Written just a year before his death in 1955, a famous two-page letter in which Albert Einstein put down his thoughts on religion, his Jewish identity and his own search for the meaning of life sold for $2.4m (£1.89m) in a New York auction on December 4.