Auctions

This cased Austro-Hungarian gold and enamel brooch/pendant with a diamond-set monogram and coronet was the gift of Archduke Franz Ferdinand to Mary Marshall, the head housekeeper at Welbeck Abbey, country residence of the Dukes of Portland, from the 1890s until her retirement in 1923.

‘The Pink Star’ – a 59.60-carat oval cut pink diamond – sold for $83m (£55m) at Sotheby’s Geneva on November 13, an auction record for any gemstone or jewel.

When, in 1854, William Holman Hunt decided to leave England to further his religious painting in Syria, John Everett Millais was distraught at the prospect of losing the only friend he entirely trusted.

Cheshire auctioneers Adam Partridge set a house record when this newly discovered copy of the Passover Haggadah written and illuminated by the celebrated 18th century scribe Aaron Wolf Herlingen sold for £210,000.

The entire contents of a West Yorkshire bookshop containing over 30,000 books are to go under the hammer with the bidding opening at just £1.

Spink have decided to give up their retail coins operation in order to focus all efforts on auctions and private treaty sales.

An auction record was set at Christie’s last week when Sir Stanley Spencer's (1891-1959) 'Christ Preaching at Cookham Regatta: Conversation Between Punts' sold at £5.3m.

Collectors have known about the possible existence of an unseen mechanical money bank by J. & E. Stevens of Connecticut for more than half a century. It’s just that one had never turned up – until now.

Bloomsbury Auctions enjoyed stellar success with their single-owner sale of caricatures, costume and sporting prints, including this image of the king’s mistress.

This rust-tinged enamelled sheet iron sign was sold for £31,500 at Summers Place Auctions’ latest sale in Billingshurst, West Sussex.

Gents of Leicester, the first company to market electric bells in the UK, began to produce the electric clock system, known eventually as the Pulsynetic in the first decade of the 20th century.

One of lots drawing a decent competition at the Adam’s sale at Slane Castle last month was a pair of chalk portraits by Robert Healy (c.1743-71).

A new record for any work of art sold in New Zealand was set when Webb’s in Auckland sold this pair of 19th century Chinese carved rhinoceros horns for NZ$680,000 (£375,700).

The large volumes of money being spent in the Contemporary art market continued at Sotheby’s last night as the auctioneers posted their highest ever total for a single sale.

Saleroom history was made in New York last night as Francis Bacon’s 'Three Studies Of Lucian Freud' set a new high for any lot ever sold at auction.

It is not often that auctioneer Graham Budd finds his name splashed over the front pages of Estonian newspapers but when a particular group of cycling memorabilia came up at his November 4-5 sale it is exactly what happened.

Campaigners against the sale of 24 items of Chinese ceramics from Croydon council’s Riesco Collection were in a race against time to raise money for their judicial review.

This Yongzheng yellow and green enamel vase was the highest-selling lot from the week-long auction series of Asian art held in London.

A thin head by Alberto Giacometti (1901-66) was one of a handful of market-fresh works that helped lift the latest Impressionist & Modern art sales in New York.

This remarkable fossil of one of the largest animals ever to have walked the Earth becomes the first large dinosaur skeleton to be offered at auction in the UK at Summers Place Auctions in Billingshurst, West Sussex, on November 27.