Auctioneers

Top-selling lot in Halls’ (24% buyer’s premium) books and manuscripts sale on November 15 was a collection of 14 letters written by the Anglo-Irish novelist Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849) between 1818-31.

Collection from unnamed vendor supplies some of the highest prices in a sale at the Drouot centre

Some notable auction action has been generated by the artist Robert Polhill Bevan (1865-1925) over the last few months.

It is often said that the mark of a good illustrator is that their work is instantly recognisable.

An album of watercolour studies of Ottoman ceramics that connects two of the British collectors of the early 20th century raced away from its estimate at Dominic Winter in Gloucestershire.

Among the most desirable of all ‘Prattware’ transfer printed wares are the series of very rare and highly decorative exhibition-style advertising plaques produced for firms such as Crosse & Blackwell and Huntley & Palmers.

Pictured here are two paintings by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) appearing on the French auction scene this season within the space of a month - one sold, the other upcoming.

On December 8 Beaussant-Lefèvre is holding a sale that will feature a number of examples of Gallé glass including this early piece.

Cast-iron provenances and first appearances on the market combine to boost value in a Cornish saleroom

Sixth instalment of single-owner collection on offer in west London features wonderful workshops

Fashion specialist Kerry Taylor was astonished to receive an email containing images of actress Elizabeth Taylor’s Oscar dress from 1961.

This silver and enamel vase by Namikawa Yasuyuki (1845-1927), the great master of Japanese cloisonné, sold to an English collector for £11,000 at Halls (24% buyer’s premium).

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

The Christmas Rare Books & Collectors sale at Irish auction house Fonsie Mealy on December 12-13 includes No33 of only 150 copies in a limited special edition of Bog Poems by Seamus Heaney illustrated by Barrie Cooke (London, Rainbow Press, 1975).

The writing was on the wall for the Waverley not long after it entered the market in 1895.

While pictures of young female sitters are not unusual in the oeuvre of George Clausen (1852-1944), ones with mythological or allegorical subjects are distinctly rarer.

The Matchbox Superfast 74a Daimler Fleetline Bus estimated at £60-80 as Lot 214 in the Vectis (27% buyer’s premium inc VAT) sale on October 31 made £35, while the version guided at £50-70 two lots later made £120.