Auctions

This ice pick belonged to the explorer James W. Dell who accompanied Scott on his first effort to reach the South Pole in 1901-04, serving as an able seaman aboard the ‘Discovery’.

This copy of The Beano No 1 from 1938 will be offered in Comic Book Auctions’ latest sale closing on March 4.

Estimated at just £200-300, a set of four early 20th century Chinese famille rose porcelain plaques depicting the four seasons in mountainous settings were bought by a phone bidder from Shanghai for £420,000 at Charterhouse of Sherborne in Dorset.

This pencil drawing by John Constable inscribed ‘Binfiled Decr. 6th 1816’ is believed to have made when the artist was staying in Binfield in Berkshire whilst returning from his honeymoon in Dorset with his wife Maria.

The first stand-alone tribal art sale held by Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury was topped at £44,000 by this 19th or early 20th century Yombe seated figure from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Contemporary art sales in London last week raised a hammer total of £254.6m, a record for an auction series in this category in the capital.

Like those London buses where you wait forever then two come along at once, two versions of a rare Olympic torch limited to just 33 examples turned up in separate Drouot auctions in Paris within the space of just ten days.

A single-owner collection of Modern British art will be offered at Boningtons’ sale of fine art, antiques and Asian works of art in Loughton, Essex on February 26.

A rare visitor to the recent numismatic sale at Lockdales in Martlesham Heath, Ipswich was a group of three convict tokens.

High Road Auctions set a new house record with the sale of this French bronze and cloisonné jardinière c.1870 by Ferdinand Barbedienne (1810-92).

More than 1000 lots are on offer at Chorley’s two-day sale on February 20-21 at Prinknash Abbey Park, Gloucestershire.

This 19th century French ormolu-mounted boulle side cabinet is attributed to the Paris-based ébéniste-marqueteur Mathieu Befort (1813-80).

Leading the latest series of Impressionist & Modern auctions in London, a textbook Cubist still life by Juan Gris (1887-1927) sold for £31m at Christie’s.

Last October, South Africa House in Trafalgar Square, London hosted an exhibition of artworks in the image of, and inspired by, Nelson Mandela.

Cambridge auctioneers Cheffins have sold the residual contents of the Luton Hoo estate.

The prize consignment of paintings, sketches, ceramics and ephemera produced by key members of the Rhead family of potters, offered by Bearnes, Hampton & Littlewood in Exeter on January 22-23, comprised 117 lots in all.

It was the most important consignment of work by the Rhead family to come onto the market in years. But would the respect in which the remarkable dynasty of potters are held translate into remarkable prices?

The book of hours known as The Rothschild Prayerbook sold for $12m (£7.55m) at Christie’s in New York.

A Paris auction firm has been banned from holding sales for nine months and two of its auctioneers suspended for three months following a disciplinary hearing by the government body appointed to oversee auction practice in France.

The art market in the New Year traditionally gets off to a rather slow start with just a scattering of fairs, dealer shows and auctions taking place in the first half of January.