Auctions

Guided at £200-400, a pair of 17th century British school portraits (one pictured below) went on to fetch £1150 each at Halls (20% buyer’s premium) of Shrewsbury.

Arthur Conan Doyle’s autograph manuscript of one of the 13 short stories that in 1905 were gathered together in book form as The Return of Sherlock Holmes was offered in New York recently.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from May 21-June 2, 2018.

Three modestly valued works in regional sales.

A quartet of weapons with fascinating histories sold recently at regional UK auctions.

The David and Peggy Rockefeller auction at Christie’s New York earlier this month was significant as a new high for a single-owner sale, with a series of noteworthy results such as a $102m (£75m) Picasso.

Lenses and slides caught the eye of buyers at specialist science and early technology auctioneer Flints (20% + VAT buyer’s premium) at its two-day sale of Fine Photographica & Instruments of Science & Medicine.

Dogny Auction in Lausanne will be offering this portrait by Albert Anker (1831-1910) as a highlight of its June 5 summer auction.

Not, perhaps, the face modern eyes would immediately think of captivating an emperor, but this porcelain plaque portrait of Napoleon’s first wife, Josephine, was one of a number of major attractions at Canterbury Auction Galleries’ (24% buyer’s premium) Spring Sale.

Around 50 lots of French porcelain from the collection formed by Nadia Ortiz Patino of the famous collecting family are to be offered in a June 6 sale at Drouot, to be held by Thierry de Maigret under the expertise of Hervé de la Verrie.

Whatever the collective noun is for carriage-driving enthusiasts is – a whip-round? – they were gathered from across Europe for the dispersal of the collection of the UK’s doyenne of the carriage trade.