UK

Artist Sarah Biffin (1784-1850) is believed to have had the condition phocomelia and was born without hands, arms or feet.

Two key early maps of colonial North America were offered for sale at Ramsay Cornish in Edinburgh on December 7.

Two leading BADA members have reported strong sales to close out the year.

Although catalogued as Sèvres, a porcelain cup and saucer sold by Keys (20% buyer’s premium) of Aylsham for an unexpected £5500 (estimate £100-200) on November 27 was by the factory’s precursor at Vincennes. The saucer had the date letter A for c.1754 and the cup B for c.1755.

Exhibitors were encouraged by the second Art and Antiques for Everyone (AAfE) under ambitious new owner MaD Events.

This group of late-19th century Chinese export bowls and saucers was made for the Middle Eastern market – specifically for the Qajar prince Mas’ud Mirza Zill al-Sultan (1850-1918).

Cotswolds steel masterworks bring £50,000.

The sale at John Nicholson’s (25% buyer’s premium) in Haslemere on October 24 included a substantial collection of ancient (or ancient style) coloured glassware: more than 60 pieces sold across half a dozen group lots.

Two lots of Japanese cloisonné – both by top-drawer Meiji workshops – merited sums way over estimate at a sale conducted by Thomas R Callan (20% buyer’s premium) in Ayr on November 30.

A ‘prominent’ northern English family consigned a seascape by the Dutch Golden Age painter Jacob van Ruisdael (1628-82) to Anderson & Garland (22% buyer’s premium).

An international buyer paid £34,000 for a 15th century Netherlandish School oil on panel of the Virgin and St Elizabeth which was last on the market in 1955.

A pair of engravings after Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c.1525-69) sold for more than six-times estimate at auction in Essex.

Three modestly valued works selling at regional sales including a Herbert Thomas Dicksee polar bear print.

Exhibition shows how painter’s shift from realism to Pre-Raphaelite fantasies paid off.

Two mixed lots of Victorian dust-pressed tiles sold for multi-estimate sums at Mander (24% buyer’s premium inc VAT) in Sudbury on November 30. Key to their appeal were the inclusion of near sets of tiles made by Minton Hollins & Co to designs by Arts & Crafts luminaries.

Bidders respond positively to auction combination of quality, freshness and pricing.

Grosvenor Prints celebrated its 40th anniversary in Covent Garden this month.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

The sale at flood-hit Bamfords (21% buyer’s premium) on October 30 included chattels from the estate of Lady Elizabeth Georgiana Alice Cavendish (1926-2018), daughter of the 10th Duke of Devonshire of nearby Chatsworth House.

A selection of sales made at Art and Antiques for Everyone.