Auctions

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

Drizen Dickens lots notch up notable results despite some higher-value unsolds.

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.

This small-scale wall mirror by Line Vautrin from c.1950 measures approximately 15in (38cm) in diameter.

This early-Victorian bracelet comprising eight portrait miniatures and four unusual eye miniatures set in gold is inscribed on the back with a series of identifying names, including that of Josias Nottidge, the children’s father, and his wife Emily. It tells the story of a Victorian scandal.

Among several auctions devoted to Old Master and 19th century paintings taking place in Paris this month will be the 66-lot sale held at Sotheby’s on November 19.

The impact of institutions on the collector-dominated market in fans was witnessed when the best-seller at a dedicated Tennants (20% buyer’s premium) auction went to a museum.

Well placed in Tyne & Wear to receive a number of miners’ safety lamps from the old Durham and Northumberland coalfields, Boldon Auction Galleries (17.5% buyer’s premium) was presented with something of a mystery in the form of the lamp pictured here.

Focus on one of only two notable women painters to be associated with the Norwich School.

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.

Sold for a record $2750 (£2220) at PBA Galleries (20/15% buyer’s premium) in California on October 10 was an inscribed copy of The World Set Free, a prophetic novel by HG Wells.

Going to the Fields by the Cezch artist Joža Uprka (1861-1940) is one of the potential best-sellers of Bonhams’ sale of 19th century European paintings in New York on November 20.

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.

Less familiar than some of the busts and maquettes of Winston Churchill by Oscar Nemon (1906-85) was this bronze resin maquette, below, offered at Catherine Southon’s (18% buyer’s premium) sale in Selsdon, Surrey.

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.

Some of the most striking 19th-20th century jewellery can often be found in design sales.

This sheet of studies of a monkey in red chalk on paper by the St Petersburg-born artist Alexander Jacovleff (1887-1938) will be offered in Il Ponte’s sale of 19th century paintings and sculpture in Milan on November 21.

A number of Russian icons are included in Crescent City Auction Gallery’s sale on November 16-17 in New Orleans, among them this 19th century Virgin of Kazan.