Features

The final proof coin set bearing Queen Victoria’s portrait was issued by the Royal Mint in two sets in 1893.

Dreweatts’ sale on May 17-18 includes a very rare Xuande (1426-35) mark and period cloisonné ‘pomegranate’ box and cover.

The sale of Asian Art at Chiswick Auctions on May 19 is led by this rare example of Ming dynasty cloisonné.

The two-day sale of works from the French dealership Talabardon & Gautier was held at Drouot by Ader (28% buyer’s premium)

While demand for 19th century European art remains selective, recent sales have enjoyed good bidding on the ‘right’ material with appealing estimates

The stand-out lot offered at a recent sale at Piguet (23% buyer’s premium) of Geneva was a female nude by Jean Souverbie (1891-1981).

Works by Albert Anker (1881-1910) are as popular with today’s Swiss collectors as they were in the late 19th century

This oil depicting the Acropolis in Athens by Hermann David Salomon Corrodi (1844-1905) was taken to £13,000 at Roseberys (25/20/12% buyer’s premium).

This charcoal drawing of a Normandy milkmaid is one of four works by Jean-François Millet (1814-75) to be included in Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr’s Paris sale of the collection of Alain Delon

French artist Louis Tesson (1820-70) is best known for his genre paintings in the Middle East and north Africa.

This typical genre scene by Italian painter Alessandro Milesi (1856-1945) was taken to a multi-estimate $37,500 (£31,000) at a US auction

This design for a fan leaf painted with two reclining figures of elegant women appeared in an Impressionist and Modern art sale held in Paris

During the second half of the 19th and the early part of the 20th century, the German artist Ferdinand Keller (1842-1922) had a highly successful career as a painter of historical motifs, some imagined, some of a more documentary manner

The biggest surprise at a sale held by Schuler (23/20/16% buyer’s premium) came when the dramatic depiction of The Lion Hunt was offered for SFr3000

The latest dedicated sales held by one particular auction house show how the value of Lalique glass – the epitome of inter-war glamour – is determined by its colour

The ideas of ‘liberty’ as a cause and a concept were not confined to the coffee shops of Boston and Philadelphia.

‘The Land We Live In’ is a toast that appears on a number of Irish decanters made in Cork and Waterford.

A strong performer in the Anthony du Boulay (1929-2022) sale at Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) in Dorchester was this 10in (24.5cm) enamelled chinoisierie milchglas vase.

Enamelled imperial eagle tankards or 'reichsadlerhumpen' – large three or four-litre glass drinking vessels enamelled with the 56 coats of arms and the quaternion eagle of the Holy Roman Empire – were popular from the 16th to the late 18th century.

The sale held by Catherine Southon at the Farleigh Golf Club in Surrey on April 26-27 includes a single-owner collection of 18th century drinking glasses.