Auctioneers

Considering that W Britain began making his revolutionary hollowcast toy soldiers only in 1893, a set dating from just three years later certainly deserves the tag ‘early’.

Two lots offering heraldic manuscripts – one of them being of particular regional interest – produced the highest bids in a mixed sale of collectables and militaria held in Shrewsbury.

Known familiarly as the ‘Audley End Lydgate’, the mid-15th century vellum manuscript shown below is ‘The Fall of Princes’, a Middle English version by the poet John Lydgate of Laurent de Premierfait’s French translation of Boccaccio’s De Casibus virorum illustrium.

Christie’s executive Dirk Boll told delegates at the Art Business Conference that the decorative arts could be coming back into fashion.

It’s fair to say the work of Victorian animal painter Sidney Cooper (1803-1902) is not flavour of the month.

An unpublished letter written by Nelson Mandela from his prison cell on Robben Island is to be offered at Bonhams’ South African sale in New Bond Street on September 14.

“Isn’t it possible that the Irish could be just as brilliant in the visual arts as they have been in music and literature?”

In an increasingly complex marketplace, how should auctioneers and dealers charge for their services?

UK dealers buying foreign silver, overseas bidders taking British work and generally solid interest for traditional pieces of mid-ranking silver brightened up the normally quieter late summer sales across the country.

One of the more unusual clocks on offer this summer was the late 19th century French ‘devil band’ mantel clock that attracted international bidding at Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium).

Wide-ranging Lyell family archive brings high prices across the board in London.

The product of child labour – but conscious-clear purchases for bidders – provided two of the top lots at a specialist textiles and costume sale at Tennants (20% buyer’s premium) of North Yorkshire.

In a worn but period calf binding, a 1697 first of John Evelyn’s Numismata. A Discourse of Medals… made £350 in the book section of a recent Cornish auction.

One of the harder titles in the New Naturalist series to find today is RJ Berry’s Natural History of Orkney.