UK

A handwritten account of the battle of Rorke’s Drift by Lt John Chard of the Royal Engineers, who led the renowned stand against the Zulu attack, sold for a hammer price of £140,000.

As the UK auction calendar ramps back up for the new year, expect sales to be held with no viewings or viewings by appointment.

The surprise lot at Thomson Roddick (18% buyer’s premium) was one in which the principal attraction may well have been a penny broadside of 1826.

The name William Beilby (1740-1819) is typically associated with the best of English glass and particularly the enamelling workshop operated from Amen Corner in Newcastle in the 1760s-70s.

Bid to a record £1900 in a Norfolk auction was a 1905, two-volume first of 'My Life: A Record of Events and Opinions'.

'Coming Home from the Marshes', 1886, by pioneering photographer PH Emerson (1856-1936) in his series 'Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads', is among the works offered in a solo show on the artist at London’s Michael Hoppen Gallery until the end of this month.

This 1928 ink and watercolour of stained glass for Stockton on the Forest in North Yorkshire is offered at Abbott and Holder for £350.

Two businesses from the West Country tell us how trade was going before the latest coronavirus restrictions

As with other sectors of the art and antiques market, Contemporary art can certainly produce dramatic bidding battles for under-valued material at auction.

Our regular listing of British and Irish book and works on paper sales.

Tennants’ (20% buyer’s premium) Autumn Fine Sale in Leyburn was topped by a pair of verre eglomisé pictures by Jonas Zeuner (1727-1814).

Shown here is the opening spread of a special copy of an 1895 Dent edition of 'A Midsummer Night’s Dream' sold at Lyon & Turnbull (25/20% buyer’s premium).

Once dismissed as a mere Hans Coper follower, the studio potter is now in rising demand

A recent fine art auction at Hansons (25% buyer’s premium) included a once magnificent Qianlong (1735-99) copper-red and underglaze blue lantern vase.

Petrol-themed enamel signs do not get much better than that made to promote British Dominions Empire Motor Insurance in c.1912.

Collection offered in Canterbury recalls the bizarre family life of Stanley Spencer

Our regular selection of previews from UK and Irish salerooms.