Auctions

Auction house CEFA has rebranded as The Magellan Centre and is not holding a sale on the November 15.

The Little collection of early English silver is coming to Christie’s London on December 3. The auction comprises 26 domestic vessels from the Tudor and early Stuart periods that survived the tumult of the Civil War period. Some pieces are considered the last of their type in private hands.

Market-fresh examples of Qing imperial splendour dominated a week of auctions timed to coincide with this year’s Asian Art in London event.

A Cecil Beaton sketch of Christian Dior working in his studio in Paris sold for £5200 (estimate £500-700) as part of the estate of society dress designer Ian Thomas (1929-93).

The whistle that blew after just a minute of play to signal the first penalty kick ever awarded in a World Cup Final has sold for £4200 at a London auction.

This unassuming Grana military issue c.1945 shown below forms part of the so-called Dirty Dozen wristwatches made by 12 Swiss manufacturers for the British army.

Like John Constable before him, the 19th century painter John Arnesby Brown (1866-1955) found endless inspiration in the low horizons and expansive skies of East Anglia. He was also interested in light and atmosphere and the effect of sunshine and shadow on the landscape.

Bid to a record £20,000 at a Forum Auctions (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) on September 26 was a beautifully bound example of Piranesi’s Campus Martius Antiquae Urbis.

Our weekly selection from salerooms.

The November 18 sale titled California Jewelry held by Doyle New York on the West Coast includes a group of French Art Nouveau pieces described as ‘Property from an Important Jewel Collector’. Several display the plique-à-jour (‘letting in daylight’) enamelling technique revived in the late 19th century.

The Watch Sale at Fellows in Birmingham on November 26 includes this Ref 105.002-62 Omega Speedmaster chronograph.

The growing demand in recent years to own pictures by women artists has brought this long-overlooked area of the art market to the fore. In an auction at Cirencester auction house Dominic Winter (20% buyer’s premium) two works by women painters stood out.

A flurry of bids emerged for this late-17th century canine study at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood of Exeter (23% buyer’s premium).

Musket that fired the first shot in 1775 American revolution battle appears in US saleroom.

A letter accompanying this gold, diamond and fire opal brooch, formed as a columbine, below, confirms it was part of the International Exhibition of Modern Jewellery held at The Goldsmiths Hall, London, in 1961.

A crayon portrait by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-82) surfaced at Oxford saleroom Mallams (22.5% buyer’s premium) together with another of the sitter’s father.