UK

According to the memoir Le Mémorial de Sainte- Hélène by Count Emmanuel de Las Cases published in 1823, Napoleon first expressed an interest to learn the English language during the two-month voyage from Europe to the island in 1815 aboard the Northumberland.

Made from fired clay, this 12in (30cm) high bust head of a bodhisattva comes from a little explored group of sculptures found at Hund, a small township on the ancient site of Udabhandapura in Pakistan, once the capital of the Hindu Shahi kingdom.

Hummingbirds collect nectar against a colourful flora and fauna backdrop in this large 3ft (91cm) square oil on canvas, painted earlier this year by Sri Lankan artist Senaka Senanayake (b.1951).

One of Persian scholar Imam Ghazali’s (1058-1111AD) best-known works, Kimiya-yi Sa’ādat (The Alchemy of Happiness), was compiled late in his lifetime during a period of unrest between Sufi mystics and Islamic scholars – the former accused of overphilosophising Islam and neglecting the importance of ritual practices.

Among the Middle Eastern works of art in Woolley & Wallis’ Asian Art Part II sale taking place in Salisbury on November 24 are these two 17th century Safavid Gombroon ware bowls.

The Books and Works on Paper sale at Chiswick Auctions on November 9 includes a rather special copy of Sir William Gell and John P Gandy’s The Topography, Edifices, and Ornaments of Pompeii.

Antiquities specialist Charles Ede is celebrating its 50th anniversary with an exhibition and catalogue championing the understated elegance of Greek black glaze pottery.

A reopened museum and a steady run of appearances on TV have boosted sales at two Cambridge centres.

Depicting sinewy limbed bearers relaxing beside a mahannah, this work 'Palanquin Bearers at Rest' by George Chinnery (1774-1852) is considered the largest and most accomplished figure drawing of the artist’s long career.

This late 16th or early 17th century portrait depicts the Hurrem Sultan Roxelana (1502-58), the legendary wife of the longest reigning Ottoman Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent (r.1520- 66). She became the most powerful and influential woman in Ottoman history.

Thompson’s Galleries, specialist in Modern and Contemporary British art, is opening a third exhibition space this October.

Asian Art in London: Indian & Islamic Art takes place from October 21-30.

A couple of eastern European pictures were among the top-performing works at the Chiswick Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) 19th and 20th Century art sale.

Sourced from a private property south of Bristol, this street scene with peasant women engaged in a trance-like dance sold at a local auction house.

This chromolithographed plate is one of 52 (of 55) included in a copy of Dickinson’s Comprehensive Pictures of the Great Exhibition of 1851.

Bellmans is selling the script and production archive of film director, producer and screenwriter Lewis Gilbert (1920-2018) on November 17-18.

Dominic Winter’s November 10 sale of Printed Books, Maps & Documents includes this first-edition, two-volume copy of Georg Wolffgang Knorr’s Deliciae naturae selectae, oder auserlesenes Naturalien-Cabinet welches aus den drey Reichen der Natur…

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

Rowland Leach runs interior design and antique business French Loft with his wife Mary, specialising in 17th and 18th century French and English country furniture.

Anita Morgan, co-owner of The Hive in Cambridge, is an antique tile specialist and stands at the small annual niche tile fair in Nottingham organised by the Tiles & Architectural Ceramics Society (TACS), which was held this year on October 2.