North America

Among the ceramics to be included in the Thomaston Place Winter Auction to be held in Maine from February 28-March 1, is this 2½in (6.25cm) high English George III period earthenware mug.

As ever, the most recent sale held by Dominic Winter (20% buyer’s premium) contained a great many maps and atlases and shown below is one of the highlights.

A good range of 18th and 19th century English ceramics is included in Skinner’s February 14 sale of European furniture and decorative arts in Boston.

A remarkable piece of Qing porcelain sold for $270,000 at Pook & Pook in Downington, Pennsylvania.

Affirming the strength of the market for the best British milled coins, two exceptional English gold issues were among the top prices of this year’s New York International Numismatic Convention auctions.

Two key consignments, one painting and one drawing, lifted the latest Old Master series in New York to the highest total for five years.

‘Masterpieces’ from the celebrated collections of Dr Martin Schøyen offered at a recent Christie’s (25/20/13.5% buyer’s premium) sale in London included some real rarities.

Discovered hanging on a gold charm bracelet, a rare Mughal coin has sold for Can$420,000 (£248,000) at a Canadian auction house.

According to a popular story, alexandrite, one of the three main varieties of chrysoberyl, was discovered in the Urals by the Finnish mineralogist Nils Gustaf Nordenskiöld (1792-1866) and named in honour of the future Tsar Alexander II of Russia.

Published anonymously in Boston in 1828, a copy of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s youthful first book, 'Fanshawe', sold for $38,000 (£28,790) at Bonhams New York (27.5/25/20/13.9%).

The sale at Brunk in Asheville, North Carolina, on February 8 includes a 3ft 10in (1.17m) carrara marble Cleopatra morente by the Italian sculptor Pio Fedi (1816-92).

An album dating to c.1887 containing 64 evocative albumen prints by Frank Meadow Sutcliffe, documenting Whitby, England, is on offer at New York auction house Swann.

Lambertsville, New Jersey, auction house Rago/Wright is to launch a new sale category on February 12 titled 'Studio Jewelry 1900-Present'.

This Doulton Lambeth terracotta plaque by George Tinworth will be included in the ceramics section of Skinner’s February 14 sale of European furniture and decorative arts in Boston.

Two men have pleaded guilty in connection with the theft of rare books and manuscripts from the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

A picture of a famous Italian Grand Tour view by one of the best-regarded artists of the American Hudson River school of painting is one of the highlights of a sale at Skinner in Boston on January 24.

Heritage now conducts a monthly online-only auction titled Fine & Decorative Arts. The February 13 sale includes two typical oil on panel works by the French cat painter Jules Gustave Leroy (1856-1921).