UK

An embroidered and block-printed silk robe designed by Percy Wyndham Lewis in c.1912-14 generated fervent bidding at Oxford auction house Mallams today.

Digger & Mojo’s annual Christmas event takes place tomorrow at its Wiltshire showroom.

A painting by El Greco (1541-1614) led Christie’s latest Old Master evening sale in London when it was knocked down at £5.4m.

Rolling Stones Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts, comedian Stephen Fry and singer Dame Vera Lynn have all donated ties and scarves to jewellery specialist Geoffrey Munn to raise money for Samaritans.

Pallant House Gallery in Chichester has now permanently acquired the painting 'China Dogs in a St Ives Window' by Christopher Wood (1901-30) after a successful fundraising drive.

An atmospheric oil painting by Joseph Wright of Derby (1734-97) led Sotheby’s latest Old Master evening sale in London.

The Victoria Cross is the highest British military honour, but in the animal kingdom the equivalent is the Dickin Medal. The award earned by a pigeon called Princess is coming up at auction at Holloway’s of Banbury on December 12.

A record amount of ‘treasure’ has been found in Britain’s fields and ditches by members of the public in the past year.

Next month in the UK you can watch Darkest Hour, the new film depicting the Churchills in the early days of the Second World War as he became prime minister. But if you are truly fascinated by the man regularly voted as the Greatest Briton, you can get a fix tomorrow by bidding for his spectacles.

The festive season is upon us and many will be sampling their favourite tipples. Auction houses typically take advantage of this time of year to offer special sales of wines and spirits; and Duke’s in Dorchester is doing just that later this week.

Fines from HMRC for money laundering have doubled in the past year to £1.1m but the number of fines fell to just 886.

Rare sets of geographical, astronomical and scientific themed playing cards featured in two recent sales. Those seen in a recent sale at Chorleys in Gloucestershire came from the estate of the late Alan and Joan Tucker, booksellers of Stroud, as did some 20,000 postcards and most of the books offered in the auction.