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The scene on this 19in (43cm) Yongzheng famille rose dish depicts the Daoist immortal Magu on her way to celebrate the famous peach banquet of the Queen Mother of the West, Xi Wang Mu, who rules over the garden of the peaches of longevity.

This Qing bronze fragment measuring a substantial 19in (47cm) across was once part of a magnificent sculpture of a crane that adorned an imperial palace.

American artist Alfred Cohen (1920-2001) was inspired by the colour and handling of the Post-Impressionists and the imagery of the Commedia dell’arte.

Many Chinese export porcelain forms were inspired by European silver or ceramic forms.

The ubiquitous First World War memorial plaques – the ‘death penny’ – need to have a posthumous recipient of note to sell for anything more than £50-100.

The highest single price posted in the regions during the autumn series of Asian art sales was the £380,000 bid at Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) in Dorchester for a monumental Sino-Tibetan gilt bronze devotional figure of Tara broadly dated to the Qing period.

Indian talismanic shirts or Qur’an jama were believed to carry protective powers.

Christopher Dresser created a number of daring geometric designs for silver and silver-plated toast racks in the late 1870s and early 1880s, both for Hukin & Heath and for James Dixon & Son.

Still a figure of glamour 450 years after her execution, Mary Queen of Scots was reputed to have embroidered the c.16th century fragment of bed curtain sold at Hansons (25% buyer’s premium) at Etwall on December 7.

Despite his famous name, the artist Henry Strachey (1863-1940) has never had much prominence at auction, with only around a dozen works having emerged.

There are only three other known examples of this early David Hockney (b.1937) etching titled 'Self-Portrait (not in S.A.C. or Tokyo)'.

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

Japanese antique ivories have been gradually disappearing from the catalogues of prominent dealers and major auction houses but good examples are still being sold in the regions.

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), the Nobel prize-winning poet, writer, composer, philosopher and social reformer, began to practise as an artist aged 60.

Decorative dealer Barney James of The Home Bothy stands at the Decorative Antiques and Textiles Fair in Battersea from January 25-30.

Dovehouse Fine Antiques Fairs’ organiser Jane Alexander says that her long-planned Little Chelsea Decorative Arts and Antiques Fair at Chelsea Old Town Hall is on hold for the time being.

Perhaps the most identifiable production of the Daoguang period (1820-50) of the Qing empire is the medallion bowl.

New Cheshire shop allows couple to expand their offerings, especially vintage fashion

Collections relating to leading British film director Lewis Gilbert (1920-2018) and his wife of 53 years Hylda (d.2005) provided very different lots for Billingshurst auction house Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium).

The outstanding jade offered in the regions in the October-December period was this pale celadon teapot and cover that came for sale at Duke’s in Dorchester on December 8 from a Dutch private collection where it had been since the 1980s.