Auctioneers

Turtle soup, which first became a delicacy on European tables with the emergence of the West Indies trade in the 18th century, was hugely popular among the elite of American society at the turn of the 20th century.

Pictured here are two lots of seat furniture that impressed bidders in recent auctions in Gloucestershire and Cheshire.

Irish marquetry furniture is a very distinctive form of decorative technique associated in particular with Killarney.

The stand-out performance in the March series of Asian art sales was a Qing monochrome clair-de-lune bottle vase offered by Freeman’s Hindman (26% buyer’s premium) in Chicago on March 24.

The furniture highlight of Cheffins’ (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) latest Fine sale in Cambridge was the catalogue cover star.

The well-known miniature portrait of Sir Walter Raleigh by Nicholas Hilliard (c.1547-1619) in the National Portrait Gallery was painted c.1585, the year after Raleigh was knighted.

Many items from a group on offer in west London had been displayed at National Trust sites

Following the major sum for a rare picture painted in India by Arthur William Devis (1762-1822) at Gorringe’s, another work by the artist flew over estimate a fortnight later in Devon.

Found in a country house in Gloucestershire, this letter written by Lord Byron (1788-1824) to Major John Cartwright (1740-1824) sold for £6000 at Chorley’s (28.2% buyer’s premium inc VAT) on March 20.

Works consigned by family descendants of artists proved to be an intriguing aspect of the latest Old Master, British & European Paintings sale at Bellmans (25% buyer’s premium).

Nelson and Napoleon are just two of the historical figures to have collecting markets devoted to themselves. Another is Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965).

The third book in the 'Blandings Castle' saga by PG Wodehouse was first published in the United States on July 1, 1929 by Doubleday Doran, New York, under the title 'Fish Preferred'.

Jeremy Knight, a book collector and the former curator of Horsham Museum and Art Gallery, believes he has purchased an artwork that is “the earliest-known illustration of a black person on an English sampler”.

Hansons’ saleroom in Derbyshire has been the victim of a ram-raid break-in.

The industry-standard reference book for British coins has been sold by Spink to fellow London numismatic dealership and auction house Sovereign Rarities.