Mellors & Kirk

American naval expertise and gallantry came as a big shock to the British, who had become used to the Royal Navy ruling the waves.

Nottingham auction house Mellors & Kirk (20% buyer’s premium) added to the cautiously feel-good mood created by some highly successful autumn sales in the provinces when strong private buying brought impressive results across the board.

A missing Pugin parliamentary letter box has been returned to the Palace of Westminster more than 100 years after it disappeared.

Visit by auctioneer to a regular auction-goer’s apartment uncovers Wedgwood collection.

The Patriotic War of 1812 stirred up powerful feelings of national pride in Russia.

On December 27, 1851, the architect Sir Charles Barry (1795-1860) wrote to Augustus Pugin (1812-52) with a progress report on the interior decoration of the Palace of Westminster.

Pitched at £15,000-25,000, a rare 16th century French work made its lower estimate at Mellors & Kirk (20% buyer’s premium).

Works by Namikawa Yasuyuki underline how buyers are aiming at the very best when it comes to the Japanese market ahead of a series of UK sales.

Offered as a sale within a sale, 34 silver snuff boxes and vinaigrettes came fresh to market at Lawrences’ April 9 sale after decades in a private collection.

Underpinned by bids from the internet, silver from beyond the British Isles is these days a stronger feature of provincial sales.

This trio of clocks – all classic collectors’ pieces – went well above estimate at spring sales.

Captain Albert Ball (1896-1917) is remembered as one of Britain’s greatest heroes of the skies. At the time of his death over Arras in the First World War, aged just 19, he had shot down at least 44 German planes and was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.

A hunger strike ‘Fed By Force’ medal awarded to Suffragette Selina Martin (1882-1972) has been snapped up at auction by an Australian museum.

Pouring wine at the table from a standardised machine-made bottle is a relatively new custom. For centuries before the Victorian era, wine was typically bought and stored in the barrel and decanted into bottles or jugs only before use at the table.

Collectables untouched by Byronmania but selling well at the Harold Ward auction at Mellors & Kirk on February 6-7 included a 19th century ‘Grand Tour’ Italian alabaster model of the Piazza del Duomo, Pisa, and a gold-mounted malacca walking cane engraved to the pommel with the 1816-37 royal arms.

With the great country house contents sales of the past now largely a distant memory, single-owner collection sales have become the next-best thing.