UK

The National Museums of Scotland has been revealed as the buyer of the Storrar Coverlet – a rare woollen textile withdrawn at the 11th hour from a sale at Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh in August.

Could these be the opera glasses used by Mary Lincoln on the night her husband was assassinated? Colchester auction house Reeman Dansie will offer them for sale on September 24-25 with a guide price of £10,000-20,000.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from September 10-26, 2019.

Entry card for 1823 auction sells in Gloucestershire saleroom nearly 200 years later

These two portraits – one painted in colourful hues by a known hand, the other unattributed and executed in monochrome – were the star picture lots at a lively auction in East Sussex.

Complete with 16 tissue-guarded photogravure plates in the original, stylish decorative cloth binding, one of 200 standard copies of Peter Henry Emerson’s famous Marsh Leaves of 1895 was the star turn in a recent Norfolk sale.

In September 2017 we featured Charlie King and Sam Sparrow, both then aged 13, who were offered places by Philip and Claire Crosthwaite at their monthly Hingham Antiques Fairs in Norfolk.

Benefiting from the continuing fashion for late 19th century novelty mantel clocks, a gilt-brass and steel example by Guilmet made the running at Peter Wilson (22% buyer’s premium) of Nantwich.

Japanese carved ivories of a tiger and an elephant soared far above estimate at Chorley’s (22% buyer’s premium).

Before an artist achieves ‘blue chip’ status, there is often a watershed moment in the market – a result – that makes people sit up and take note. For the Salford painter LS Lowry (1887-1976) this was the purchase of 'Going To The Match' in 1999 at Sotheby’s by the Professional Footballers’ Association.

Aeneas Bastian is director of Bastian gallery in Berlin and London. It was founded by his parents, Céline and Heiner, in 1989 and expanded to Mayfair earlier this year.

A large Georgian silver punch bowl made in 1824 (below) is available to buy from Highland Antiques of Aberdeen for £2450 at the next Galloway fair.

Every year the town council in the Kent coastal town of Deal, a place described last year as “racy, posh and cultured”, hosts a lively braderie along the High Street and adjoining streets selling antiques and vintage pieces.

The Textile Society has run antique and vintage textiles fairs in Manchester for the past 20 years with its annual London event launching in 2009. Proceeds from these 40-plus standholder events help to fund the society’s awards and bursaries.

It was as recently as June 13 that a presentation copy of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species made a record $400,000 (£316,353) at Bonhams New York – as reported in ATG No 2398. However, barely a month had passed before another 1859 first attracted a substantial six-figure bid in London.

Early English oak and yew and ceramics from St Petersburg to Stoke-on-Trent were features of a 250-lot sale which left auctioneer Jeremy Lamond in a quietly upbeat mood after Halls’ (23% buyer’s premium) summer sale at Shrewsbury.

The first lot up at the Batemans (20% buyer’s premium) sale at Stamford on August 3 was this 8¾in (22.5cm) long 'Huntsman', model 1501, stamped 'Beswick England' and the painter’s number '94'.

More reliable today than they ever were in their lifetime, the male line of the Stuarts attracted the familiar devoted following at the annual Scottish Silver & Applied Arts sale at Lyon & Turnbull (25% buyer’s premium).

Our weekly selection from salerooms.