Auction Reports

Popular figures were created in Chelsea by husband and wife duo Charles and Nell Vyse

This large iron lock and key is inscribed Presented to WP Brookes Esq by a Member of the Wenlock Olympian Class May 18th 1869.

Translating simply as ‘a box with drawers’ but so much more exotic than that, a rare Spanish Renaissance caja con cajones was the outstanding lot at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood’s (25% buyer’s premium) quarterly fine art sale in Exeter.

This rare doucai porcelain vase, with Qianlong marks and probably of period, provided a classic tale of discovery in the saga of the Chinese boom.

This original concert poster advertises the second of two now legendary punk rock concerts in Manchester in the summer of 1976.

The medallion of a kneeling slave asking the rhetorical question 'Am I Not A Man And A Brother?' was first made in 1787 on the founding of the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade.

The classic enamel station totem signs used in the early days of the newly formed British Railways have long shown their pulling power at auction.

London auctioneer overcomes power cut to complete sale including a mighty Fresnel lens

The Marine Sale at Bonhams (27.5/25/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) included a very rare gold and enamel ring marking the death of Admiral Lord Nelson in 1805.

It was during the Song dynasty that tea parties became the vogue and tea houses flourished.

Typically, the work of studio potter Joanna Constantinidis (1927-2000), for nearly 40 years a lecturer in ceramics at Chelmsford Technical College and School of Art, has tended to occupy the second tier of the burgeoning contemporary ceramics market.

Power of the Force line was launched as the original Star Wars began to lose its shine but rarest figures still bring demand

The top-selling lots at Hansons’ April 1 Fine Art Sale were two pieces of Chinese blue and white porcelain.

To mark the new range of Star Wars toys that came with the release of Return of the Jedi in 1983, the Leicester firm Palitoy commissioned a series of hand-built and hand-painted store displays to send to some of its best retailers.

This large oak Orientalist carving, 'Eastern Slave Girl', is by the Victorian woodcarver Thomas Henry Kendall.

This 13in (33cm) ormolu vase candelabrum is a candidate for the earliest English neoclassical metalwork.

Pair sold at Somerset saleroom spark a debate on where and when they were made

A medal awarded to a member of the only Canadian battalion composed of black soldiers to serve in the First World War has sold in a London auction.

As famous last words go, those of Major General John Sedgwick in the American Civil War take some beating.

This Victorian cased diorama of birds of paradise native to New Guinea sold for £18,000 to lead Tennants’ (22% buyer’s premium) Natural History and Taxidermy sale in Leyburn on April 20.