Auctions

A letter accompanying this gold, diamond and fire opal brooch, formed as a columbine, below, confirms it was part of the International Exhibition of Modern Jewellery held at The Goldsmiths Hall, London, in 1961.

Jewellery owned by Marie Valerie Hapsburg, the favourite daughter of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, will be auctioned by Dorotheum in Vienna on November 27.

A hitherto unknown portrait of Nelson sold for three times the top estimate at the Charles Miller (24% buyer’s premium) auction on November 5.

The November 18 sale titled California Jewelry held by Doyle New York on the West Coast includes a group of French Art Nouveau pieces described as ‘Property from an Important Jewel Collector’. Several display the plique-à-jour (‘letting in daylight’) enamelling technique revived in the late 19th century.

A welcome trend in the jewellery market has been the resurgence of the brooch. In October, when Baroness Brenda Hales gave her verdict on Boris Johnson’s ‘illegal’ prorogation of Parliament, what many social media users really wanted to know was ‘where did she get that spider brooch?’

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.