Auctions

An unframed painting offered at a Norfolk auction was bid to 2000 times its high estimate when bidders detected in it the hand of an Italian Old Master.

A two-volume manuscript used to determine swan ownership in East Anglia from the 16th to the 19th century was sold by Sworders for a remarkable £54,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium).

The first Victoria Cross awarded to a civilian is coming up for auction at Noonans on September 14.

A volume containing first editions of two important geological works by Dr Gideon Mantell sold for £2000 in West Sussex.

Marks painting was also one of the highlights at auction where La Thangue sold at six figures

Auction house Dreweatts will conduct a sale at Barnwell Manor, Northamptonshire – home to dealership Windsor House Antiques – on September 7.

Bellmans is selling the collection of Anthony and Marietta Coleridge on September 7-8.

Two sporting ‘firsts’ are being marked by lots coming up in separate auctions this month.

On September 15 in Bordeaux, Briscadieu will be holding a sale featuring a large group of around 100 lots of locally produced porcelains from the Verneuilh and Vanier factory, which began in the 1780s, all domestic tablewares variously decorated with floral, topographical, figural or pastoral scenes.

Among the lots catching bidders’ eyes in the last few months were a number of intriguing portraits that came up at sales in south-west England.

Copy of his first book was a later gift from Sir John Heygate to Tarka the Otter author

Collecting 18th century English porcelain is still a popular pursuit – but there’s no doubt that the core collecting audience is smaller than it once was.

The most desirable pieces of Lowestoft porcelain are typically the documentary pieces decorated with East Anglian scenes.

This Worcester teapot, offered for sale at Lawrences (25% buyer’s premium) in Crewkerne, dates from the first decade of factory production: c.1755-57.

A small portrait of a woman that was pitched at £100-150 drew a bidding battle that carried it over 10 times estimate.

Aboriginal shields come in two basic types: broad shields used for deflecting projectiles and the narrow, compact parrying shields used in close contact fighting.