Auctions

Size, quality, condition and subject matter are the ingredients by which Berlin porcelain plaques are judged.

As with many areas of collectable ceramics, the marketplace for Sylvac animals has been rather muted in recent times. But, if prices have flat-lined for most pieces then there are still collectors waiting in the wings should something truly rare present itself.

A major bidding competition arose in Edinburgh last week as auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull offered this Old Master painting as part of their sale of contents from Lingholm House in Cumbria.

Little did “the Reverend Dr Walter Blandford Warden of Wadham Colledge” of Oxford University realise that one day his name would have such significance in the world of newspapers.

The violin played by Titanic bandmaster Wallace Hartley as the ship slid beneath the waves on the morning of April 15, 1912, was always going to a) attract massive worldwide interest and b) bring in the big bucks at auction.

Sworders have sold the contents of Debden Manor, Essex from their saleroom in Stansted Mountfitchet – a house sale titled ‘An Architect’s Eye, A Collector’s Passion’.

The Association of Accredited Auctioneers (Triple-A), founded in 2012 by UK regional auctioneers to attract Chinese buyers, are to hold a second auction of Western antiques in China.

This spectacular pair of 19th century Meissen covered urns sailed past their top estimate of $15,000 to bring $175,000 (£114,400) at the sale held by Cottone Auctions in Geneseo, New York earlier this month.

The August 1908 issue of Votes for Women, house magazine of the Women’s Social and Political Union describes ‘the latest novelty in the Union colours – a special belt and buckle, which is being sold at half-a-crown each’.

The English porcelain highlight of the last month was undoubtedly this Worcester coffee pot sold at Tunbridge Wells & Hastings.

If you delight in the 19th century rococo revival style – playful putti, festoons of ormolu and pastoral vignettes – then the Safford sale held by Freeman’s in Philadelphia was for you.

Doncaster auctioneer Sid Wilkinson is to sell items from a huge cache of Tudor pewter tablewares recently discovered by professional treasure hunters off the coast of the Dominican Republic.

Estimated to sell for $800-1200, this loving cup combining the talents of William Moorcroft and the San Francisco jewellers Shreve & Co. sold for $27,000 (£17,650) at Clars Auction Gallery in Oakland, California.

Sotheby’s crowned their five-day HK$4.2bn (£354.5m) sales series in Hong Kong this month with a record price for a white diamond.

This small sculpture conveying the raw horror of the First World War attracted serious competition at Duke’s of Dorchester.

Christie’s mainland Chinese debut, the First Shanghai Auction on September 26, coincided with the opening of a free-trade zone in Shanghai.

Sotheby’s have announced that they are to offer a flawless 59.6-carat pink diamond for sale in Geneva on November 13 with a record asking price of $60m.

Among the highlights of the New York Asia Week series of sales at Doyle New York was this Qianlong white jade phoenix ewer.

Cheshire auctioneers Adam Partridge have discovered a copy of the Passover Haggadah written and illuminated by the celebrated 18th century scribe Aaron Wolf Herlingen in Vienna.

A house clearance in Staffordshire yielded this highly decorative pair of late 18th or early 19th century narwhal tusk and gilt-metal lanterns for Louis Taylor’s latest sale in Stoke-on-Trent.