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English and Continental Antiques, the Suffolk dealership, has its second selling exhibition of 2017 on May 27.

“We were somewhere around Barstow when the drugs began to take hold” are the opening words of Hunter S Thompson’s notorious and loosely autobiographical novel Fear and Loathing Las Vegas…

Karl & Faber in Munich is offering 'Portrait of a Man, Holding a Carnation', a 16 x 11in (41 x 29cm) panel, attributed to Dirck Jacobsz (before 1497-1567) at its auction on May 19.

Brexit, rising inflation and now the distraction of a snap general election has left a feeling in the picture trade that the good start to the year may begin to fade.

Before the poet Edward Lear sent the owl and the pussycat out to sea in a beautiful pea green boat in his 1867 poem, he combined them in this c.1846 watercolour.

A painting of St Tropez by the Fauvist painter Charles Camoin (1879-1965) went under the hammer for the first time in more than half a century at Gildings (15% buyer’s premium).

Sold for £6000 in a Forum Auctions (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) sale of March 30 was a copy of one of the earliest books on swimming.

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has settled a long-running dispute with the estate of a Jewish collector whose house contents was sold by the Graupe Auction House in Berlin in 1937.

Gustave Vichy was probably the most accomplished manufacturer of automata in fin de siècle France. A prime example of his art is putting in an appearance at the May 20 sale of Auction Team Breker in Cologne.

A collection of early 20th century German works on paper, brought to England in the possession of a German academic who fled the Nazis on the eve of the Second World War, appeared at Canterbury Auction Galleries (20% buyer’s premium) on April 4-5.

More than 130 original artworks by the artist, sometimes savage political cartoonist and stage designer, Gerald Scarfe, were offered by Sotheby’s (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) on April 5.

A scarce complete portfolio of 26 prints from Erté’s (1892-1990) famed Alphabet Suite appeared at Henry Adams (20% buyer’s premium) on April 12 in Chichester.

Reversing the usual pattern where it is an author’s first book that makes the big money, it is the last of the 38 books featuring Richmal Crompton’s most famous children’s book creation that has for many years been one of the most expensive purchases for collectors.

“Wait a minute. You’re putting my gloves in jail? This is awful. How can you put my gloves in jail? They ain’t done nothing… yet!”

Overshadowed by the boom in Chinese works and contemporary art they may have been, but the rise in demand for British studio ceramics has been the talk of the market these last few years.

A view by Yorkshire artist Fred Elwell (1870-1958) of his beloved local town, Beverley, took £13,000 at local saleroom Hawleys (15% buyer’s premium) on April 9.

Symbols of good fortune and longevity in both China and Japan, cranes cast in bronze with incised decoration were simply catalogued as oriental at the April 10 sale held by Edinburgh auction house Thomson Roddick (16% buyer’s premium).

Last week’s spectacular $14.5m sale of an ancient ‘stargazer’ idol has been placed in doubt after the Turkish government challenged Christie’s right to sell it.

Catch of the day at Cockermouth auctioneers Mitchells’ (20% buyer’s premium) sporting sale on April 8 was a cast of a salmon. The 48lb fish, cast by Mallochs of Perth, was estimated at £1800-2000 but was reeled in by a Scottish enthusiast at £5200.

Best round scores in the most recent PBA Galleries (20/15% buyer’s premium) golfing sale came with the appearance of a group of the papers of golfing historian and collector CB Clapcott.