Auctioneers

In May 1789, as the political and financial situation in France grew ever bleaker, Louis XVI was forced to summon the three estates – the clergy, nobility and commoners – who had the power to levy taxes and implement reform.

For many years, marine art sales were used by the big auction houses to tap into the wealth of the world’s yachting and sailing community.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

Sun Yat-Sen (1866-1925) was the first president and founder of the Republic of China, and his bust adorns the obverse of a coin which will highlight the next Coins and Currency Auction at Rago, New Jersey, on December 2.

A selection of stand-out lots from auctions in west London, Mayfair and Gloucestershire.

A rather unconventional painting by the Victorian artist Joseph Farquharson (1846-1935) featured in Catherine Southon’s (18% buyer’s premium) sale in Surrey.

Just a clutch of canvases by the Cornish artist Marjorie Frances ‘Midge’ Bruford (1902-58) have gone under the auctioneer’s gavel.

Twelve items of jewellery belonging to Lady Ottoline Morrell (1873-1938) – the woman who inspired the DH Lawrence character Lady Chatterley – contributed more than £15,000 to the sale conducted by Woolley & Wallis on October 26.

Mallams in Oxford posted a house record for jewellery on November 15 when a pair of Cartier earrings sold to one of 12 international phone bidders for £72,000 (plus premium).

The French artist Jean Béraud (1848- 1935) was renowned for his numerous depictions of life in Paris.

A market-fresh drawing of a Balinese lady by the Dutch artist Willem Gerard Hofker (1902-81) soared to £8500 at Greenslade Taylor Hunt (19% buyer’s premium) in Taunton.

After a two-year wait, lots from the defunct manuscript investment scheme Aristophil will be resold at the Drouot in Paris next month.

The first Rolex Submariner was introduced to the public in 1954 at the Basel Watch Fair but it was Ian Fleming’s fictional spy, James Bond, who in 1962 transformed a reliable and rugged dive watch to a status symbol embodying suave masculinity and a sense of adventure.

In this 1917 Revolution centenary year, Soviet art assumes extra prominence at this season’s Russian series.