UK

This rare 2in (5cm) English delftware ointment pot, c.1775, carries the inscription in manganese 'The Queen’s Dentifrice'.

Staffordshire flatback figures have been off the boil for a while.

When once asked how long he had spent painting a certain picture, Scottish artist William Johnstone (1897-1981) is said to have replied: “Only 10 minutes, I suppose, but it’s taken 70 years of looking.”

Pitching a work at the right level is crucial to demand and price when it comes to selling unattributed or loosely ascribed Old Masters at auction.

International bidders competed online and by phone against the UK trade and collectors for a group of 18th century Meissen figures offered at Adam Partridge (20% buyer’s premium) in Macclesfield.

This spiral-moulded cream jug decorated with a drummer boy is from a well-documented Caughley tea and coffee service painted with figural subjects by Fidelle Duvivier during a brief period of work at the Chamberlain factory in Worcester in October 1792.

Two pictures from local deceased estates drew solid competition at a recent sale at East Yorkshire auction house Hawleys (20% buyers premium) thanks to being offered with ‘there-to-be-sold’ estimates.

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

A George IV rosewood table with an Italian specimen marble top, c.1820, was among the highlight sales at Masterpiece’s recent virtual edition, selling with an asking price of £75,000 to a private collector.

Providing a major boost to Bonhams’ first sale in London with room bidding since the lockdown, a portrait of the writer EM Forster by Roger Fry (1866-1934) set an auction record both for the artist and any Bloomsbury Group picture.