Features

Chairs and sofas by Howard & Sons are a pricey niche market these days, largely immune to the varying fortunes of the wider market for Victorian and Edwardian furniture.

Key and pistol combination stands out in a comprehensive firearms collection offered during a dedicated sale staged on home turf

An intriguing inscription on a sword presented to a British army officer by the Sultan of Morocco helped to achieve a hammer price nearly 10 times the top estimate.

Only 155 Arctic Medals 1875-76 were issued, with 59 of those being to HMS Discovery.

Airborne forces memorabilia is usually a winner at auction but especially when it’s an early example

Originally Roman, Portchester Castle near Portsmouth was first used to house captured enemy soldiers in 1665, when England was at war with the Netherlands.

The front page of ATG No 2558 featured a Second World War nurse’s cape decorated with an array of cloth regimental badges that sold at Essex auction house Sworders in August last year.

Among recent paratrooper items that impressed at auction, this Polish badge with combat wreath doubled the top estimate at Bosleys to take £4000 from a UK online private buyer.

It is a big move for auctioneer Charles Miller. Well, big in terms of his new premises being larger and taller. Not so big in terms of huge distance, however.

Cheffins of Cambridge is offering a marble bust of Lord Nelson, after Franz Thaller (1759-1817) and Matthias Ranson (fl. c.1800).

One of the best performers against estimate at Tennants’ (24% buyer’s premium) Militaria & Ethnographica sale on September 20 was a fascinating collection of photographs and ephemera relating to a French Second World War hero.

The ‘fine and scarce’ 1918 Sopwith Camel fighter ace’s Distinguished Flying Cross and bar awarded to Captain Solomon Clifford Joseph (previewed in ATG No 2613) sold within estimate for £20,000 in Mayfair.

An intriguing painted wooden British soldier doll sold for more than 10 times the top estimate when it was offered at Guernsey auction house Martel Maides (24% buyer’s premium).

A never-before-seen photo of soldiers leaving Ulster to fight in the First World War and a serviceman’s diary from the trenches have been uncovered.

Although Gallipoli in the Great War became a defining moment in Australian nationhood and identity, the second Boer War from 1899-1902 featured the first-large scale involvement of troops from Down Under.

This 18in (45cm) high Chongzhen (1627-44) blue and white sleeve vase dated to the Wuyin year corresponding to 1638 is decorated with a scene from a popular 17th century drama based on a Tang poem.

Bonhams’ Fine Chinese Art sale on November 2 includes this Qing jade carving of a mythical beast that formed part of the seminal Chinesische Kunst exhibition of 1929 in Berlin.

The Woolley & Wallis Japanese sale includes some good examples of the Edo period porcelains that wowed the European courts of the 17th and early 18th centuries.

This pair of kesi chair covers woven with front-facing dragons against an apricot ground, date from the late Ming or early Qing dynasty period.

Susan Page brings a selection of snuff bottles from the Golden Autumn Collection to this year’s Asian Art in London, staging the show at Daniel Crouch Rare Books in St James’s.