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The compact animal carvings of the Tomotada school are rightly thought of as the zenith of shashin netsuke, and this ivory buffalo and calf, right, by the Kyoto master (or one of his pupils) attracted strong bidding from US and London trade at Bonhams’dispersal of Branton Court.

Horseless carriages have long been the preserve of Thimbleby and Shoreland at Reading but the private collection of farm implements built up by Herefordshire corn merchant and farmer Hector Morris saw Leominster auctioneers Brightwells (15% buyer’s premium inc. vat) put a number of carriages on the market on July 20.

Ever keen to come up with new auction formats that stimulate the interest of private buyers, Bonhams (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) held their first sale of sporting and ornithological pictures combined with sporting guns at Knightsbridge on August 7-8.

USA: Dargate Auction Galleries of Pittsburgh, USA, will conduct their first sale under new ownership on September 20-21. Owners Dan Zivcho and Paul Novascel, two Cleveland-based investors who bought the business at auction for $50,000 earlier this year upon the retirement of former owners Carol and Larry Farley, have now signed a lease on new premises.

Golf has always been a subject that can have a dramatic effect on the price levels of artists who normally make little impact in the salerooms. Take the case of Frank Watson Wood (1862-1953), a Berwick-on-Tweed watercolourist who specialised in landscapes and marines, the best examples of which fetch around £1500 at auction.

This muscular terracotta modellino of a moor, Il Moro, 2ft 75/8in high (80.5cm), attributed to Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), wrested the top slot from a powerfully modelled pair of 16th century bronzes in Sotheby’s (19.5/10% buyer’s premium) 174-lot European Sculpture and Works of Art 900-1900 auction on July 9.

The schwein-degen, or boar sword, is a rare beast. Good examples can elude collectors for decades, and the cobwebbed halls of schloss- dwelling aristocrats are a favourite hiding place. So there was plenty of excitement when an example broke cover at Sotheby’s sale of arms and armour in London on July 10.