Auctions

One of the more unusual lots that I have encountered in recent times is a piece of card bearing the only known example of Mahatma Gandhi’s fingerprints.

Christie’s Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art sale on September 23 is headlined by this parcel gilt dish.

Doyle’s Asian art auction in New York on September 20 will include porcelain from a collection assembled over many decades by department store heiress Sarah Belk Gambrell (1918-2020).

Stamford Auction Rooms set a house record when a Chinese pottery tripod censer shot over its £500-800 estimate to bring £320,000.

The gun Pat Garrett used to kill Billy the Kid has been sold for a world auction record for any firearm at Bonhams in Los Angeles.

This near-complete Böttger Meissen tea set, c.1725, came for sale at Keys of Aylsham on September 1.

As the Silent Generation passes and Baby Boomers choose to divest, large deposits of once fashionable art and antiques are heading for auction in the US.

Siege money or ‘money of necessity’ was minted in Newark in 1646 during the town’s third siege and the last year of the First English Civil War.

Cyrene, founded by Greeks c.631BC in the uplands near present-day Shahhat in Libya, reached the height of its prosperity in the 5th century BC.

On April 14, 1746, two days before the battle that would seal his fate, Charles Edward Stuart held a lavish meal at Culloden House, the highland estate owned by Hanoverian loyalist Duncan Forbes (1685-1747) that had recently been commandeered by Jacobite forces.

Following an upturn in the fortunes of the silver trade in York, an assay office reopened there in 1776 and remained active until final closure in 1858.

Although condition remains a pivotal factor in the Old Master market, a number of lots sold recently in the UK regions suggest increasing interest for works that represent a promising restoration project.

An intriguing variation on an Old Master sparked a strong competition at Parker Fine Art (25% buyer’s premium) earlier this summer.

The rarest Scottish provincial town marks, known only from spoons and ladles, are those of Stonehaven, Ellon and Keith.

A selection of 11 upcoming lots from auctions taking place around the UK and Ireland