Auctions

It was on March 1, 1849 that Nathaniel Cook, the editor of the Illustrated London News, registered the design that would provide the ancient and cosmopolitan game of chess with its first standardised set.

A gold and cameo ring offered with an estimate of just £200-300 at Derbyshire auction house Irita Marriott (plus 28.8% buyer’s premium inc VAT) and catalogued as 19th century caught the eye of a number of jewellery dealers and bidders from as far as Paris and the US.

Extensive collection on tennis theme inlcudes early Wimbledon designs and Broders view of Monte Carlo

A lot catalogued simply as a ’French gilt bronze figure of Madonna and Child’ proved the highlight of the Furniture, Art & Asian auction at Clars (28% buyer’s premium) in Oakland, California, on May 17.

A round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days, including an archive being sold by Charlie Chaplin's goddaughter.

“Siege notes are a niche but popular subsidiary of military banknote collecting,” says Andrew Pattison, head of the Banknotes Department at Noonans (24% buyer’s premium).

Stephen Switzer (1682-1745), gardener, author, landscape designer and seedsman, was apprenticed in 1699 to George London, the senior partner of Brompton Park Nurseries.

This 1890s automaton made by Vichy (France) is known as Pierrot Serenading the Moon and is considered a signature model of the firm.

A row over the attribution of a ‘Ben Nicholson’ mural painting that appeared on the BBC’s 'Fake or Fortune?' led to the work being withdrawn at the last minute from an auction in Penzance.