Auctioneers

Natural history works, together with books, prints, even pictures featuring aspects of hunting, were a key component of a Sotheby’s (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) sale of November 2 billed only as The Library of a European Gentleman.

Entered into the October 21 sale at Bishop & Miller (18% buyer’s premium) by a Suffolk vendor thinning out his collection, these carved boxwood nutcrackers, right, made an immediate impact on bidders at the Stowmarket rooms.

Originally published in parts in the years 1804-12, George Brookshaw’s Pomona Britannica contains 90 colour-printed and hand finished aquatint and stipple-engraved plates of fruits then cultivated in Britain (pineapple pictured below).

Though probably better known for his bronze and chryselphantine Art Deco figures, Austrian sculptor Josef Lorenzl also worked for Viennese ceramics factories and, in particular, Goldscheider, for whom he designed the extremely popular Butterfly Girl.

The dual appeal of Maltese silver lies in both a sense of national pride and a very limited supply.

A December 7 sale of European ceramics at Bonhams will incorporate 130 pieces of Neapolitan porcelain from a single private source.

An extraordinary example of British avant-garde clothing made on the eve of the First World War will be offered at auction in Oxford next month.

Estimated at £12,000-18,000, this impressive pair of Regency four-light candelabra dipped just under hopes to sell for £11,500 at Fellows in Birmingham.

The Canterbury Auction Galleries included this George IV silver vinaigrette by John Lawrence & Co, Birmingham, decorated with a view of St Peter’s Church, Brighton. It sold to an Australian internet bidder for £2300.

Maidenhead auction house Dawson’s is dipping a toe into the world of design with a dedicated sale on December 2.

The last remnants of Mallett’s stock, including a clutch of 18th century pictures, were offered in a final sale in Berkshire on November 8.

A fine pair of Victorian figural table salts in the form of sea maidens on the back of dolphins sold for £4900 (estimate £1500-2000) at Wootton Auction Rooms in Gloucestershire on October 17. Weighing 33oz, they carry marks for John Wilmin Figg, London 1841.