Bonhams

Although originally trained as a goldsmith, Dirck Van Rijswijck (1596-1679) developed his own characteristic style using less rarefied material.

An exceptional silver Breguet hump-backed carriage clock commissioned by car maker Ettore Bugatti topped Bonhams’ latest Fine Clock Sale.

Scrap of paper came as result of half a manuscript book being chewed into ‘confetti’ by Steinbeck’s dog

A royal armorial goblet by William Beilby – among the most celebrated pieces of glass ever produced in Britain – sold for a record £140,000 at Bonhams.

Bonhams’ London Jewels sale on September 21 was topped by this Chaumet diamond necklace.

Chiswick Auctions’ most successful silver sale to date on October 11 included a George II teapot of American colonial interest.

Top prices set for majolica by the French Massier factory at auction in Belgium

The Dutch diplomat, musician, writer and sinologist Robert Hans van Gulik (1910-67), also known as Gao Luopei, was a great admirer of traditional Chinese literati culture.

A childhood in Wiltshire partly spent picking up ammunition lying around as a result of the Allied preparations for D-Day helped to spark Alexander Jeremy Peckover Penrose’s (known as Jerry) interest in firearms.

The most contested lot in Bonhams’ October 19 Expressionism: Germany, Austria and Beyond sale was a self-portrait by the German painter Hermann Lismann (1878-1943).

On September 21 Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr (28/27/21/14.5% buyer’s premium) held a sale in Paris celebrating the decade of the 1980s.

Estimated at $30,000-50,000, an ink and colour on paper hanging scroll by Shi Lu (1919-82) took a mighty $430,000 (£354,500) at the latest Bonhams (28/27/21% buyer’s premium) auction of Fine Chinese Paintings in New York.

A rare Islamic Mecca-centred world map, considered a masterpiece from Safavid Persia, will star in the Islamic and Indian Art sale at Bonhams.

Originally Roman, Portchester Castle near Portsmouth was first used to house captured enemy soldiers in 1665, when England was at war with the Netherlands.

A highlight of Bonhams’ (28/27/21% buyer’s premium) Home & Interiors sale on September 26 was this clock surmounted by a bronze cast of the Jean-Jacques Feuchere (1807-52) sculpture Mephistopheles or Satan.

This 18in (45cm) high Chongzhen (1627-44) blue and white sleeve vase dated to the Wuyin year corresponding to 1638 is decorated with a scene from a popular 17th century drama based on a Tang poem.

Bonhams’ Fine Chinese Art sale on November 2 includes this Qing jade carving of a mythical beast that formed part of the seminal Chinesische Kunst exhibition of 1929 in Berlin.

Bonhams’ general Asian art sale in Knightsbridge on October 30 includes this late 18th century hardstone, mother-of-pearl and lacquer table screen.

A collection of Chinese art from a German family collection formed over many decades is to be offered in Paris by Bonhams Cornette Saint Cyr on October 26.