Scotland

Letter to Queen Elizabeth I written after Robert Dudley’s marriage lacks the earlier flirtatious tone

Among the most desirable of all Scottish garden ornaments are the Garnkirk urns, a pair of neoclassical vases first made for the Great Exhibition of 1851.

A stylised still-life by Robert Colquhoun (1914-62) was one of a number of good quality Scottish pictures generating interest at a recent sale at Taylors Auctions (26% buyer’s premium) in Montrose, Angus.

When a copy of 'The Ristigouche and Its Salmon Fishing' by Dean Sage came up for auction at Bonhams New York in 2011 it was described “the rarest and most beautiful book on salmon fishing and with an important chapter on the collecting of angling literature”.

Full array sells for £26,000 while single lot hammers at £6500 as enthusiasts compete in salerooms

Based on Mary Shelley’s novel published in 1818, the play 'Frankenstein; or the Man and the Monster, A Romantic Melo-Drama, in Two Acts' debuted at the Royal Coburg Theatre in July 1826.

The auction market can be a fickle beast, as results for the same items offered on separate occasions sometimes show.

A group of seven mountainous landscapes by Hilda Marion Hechle (1886-1939) were the subject of a good deal of interest at a recent sale at Great Western Auctions (24% buyer’s premium) in Glasgow.

It is said Louis Vuitton spent 17 years mastering the art of trunk making before establishing his eponymous company in 1854.

Belgian city’s council was successful with pre-sale deal to buy queen’s plea on behalf of political prisoners

Premium-inclusive total achieved in Edinburgh underlines the quality of lots on offer

The pictorial enamel signs advertising Webb’s Seeds of Stourbridge are some of the most popular on the UK market.

The second day of the Design Since 1860 sale at Lyon & Turnbull on October 17 included a rare stained oak Charles Rennie Mackintosh stool from Miss Cranston’s Argyle Tea Rooms.