Auctions

Ian Fleming firsts in a Swann of New York sale of May 14 will include a copy of Goldfinger of 1959 inscribed to a famous golfer, Henry Cotton, estimated at $12,000-18,000 (£9250- 13,850).

This 3ft 10in (1.15m) wide Qianlong (1736-95) three-colour lacquer throne merits a catalogue of its own and an £800,000-1.2m estimate at Christie’s in London on May 14.

At Donnington Priory on May 23, Dreweatts will hold a sale of Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art where this 17th or 18th century bronze ‘dragon’ censer and original stand, with Xuande four-character mark, is pitched at £8000-12,000.

Opening the antique ceramics section of Lawrences’ (25% buyer’s premium) four-day sale in Crewkerne was the William Farrar Jackson collection of commemorative English pottery.

A library focused on Antarctic exploration gave a New Zealand saleroom one of its more successful book and manuscript auctions since the company’s foundation in 2011.

Chiswick Auctions’ May 20 sale in west London titled 'Wood Speaks: From Chinese furniture to Scholar’s Treasures' includes a collection of 200 Qing dynasty carved wood displays.

A pair of Worcester dishes of so-called ‘Blind Earl’ form was a best-seller in the ceramics section that opened Dreweatts’ (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) spring sale.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from May 8-15, 2019.

On May 21 Woolley & Wallis of Salisbury will offer 'The Grand View of Chao Mountain' by Zhang Da Qian (1899-1983) estimated at £100,000-150,000 as part of its sale of Chinese paintings and works of art.

The May 14-16 Interiors series at Bellmans of Wisborough Green, West Sussex, features a substantial Asian section.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

This framed wood panel decorated in gold, silver and red lacquer with a pair of spiny lobsters on a rocky outcrop is signed 'Gyoen Hachijuni O Koma Zeshin' (An old man in his 82nd year, Kona Zeshin) and dated 1888.

The latest version of Christie’s (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) Collector sale in New York featured an interesting collection of equine pottery: an ensemble of 10 large-scale English pearl ware horses, the majority made in the Leeds pottery in the first half of the 19th century.

At an uncertain time bidders are assertive when the best and not the rest comes up at auction.

Plague water is one of the more striking entries in a now worn but finely bound volume of cookery and medical recipes sold recently in London.

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.

Some early Chinese objects are included in the Timeline Auctions sale in Harwich, Essex on May 28.

The famous Australian soprano Dame Nellie Melba once owned this pair of ‘Dragon and Phoenix’ bottle vases which were sold at auction from her estate in 2015.

Included in a mixed-discipline sale held in Paris by Daguerre (28% buyer’s premium inc VAT) at Drouot was a Sèvres bough pot in soft paste porcelain.

Three modestly valued works selling at regional sales below £900, including a watercolour view of Cliveden House.