Pick of the Week

Bidders were out in force at a recent sale in North Carolina for a collection of 136 lots consigned from the estate of the late Robert K Johnson, a finance and telecommunications executive.

The handwritten journal of Colonel Christopher Rigby, recording his success in securing freedom for thousands of slaves in east Africa, was the highlight of a collection of his papers sold in London.

In his book 'Oriental Rugs' (1998), textiles scholar Murray Eiland Jr lamented the challenges in dating and identifying carpets woven in south-east India.

A nude study by Dame Laura Knight (1877-1970) found plenty of admirers when it appeared at the latest fine art sale held by Penzance saleroom David Lay (18% buyer’s premium).

Tureens in the form of geese, cockerel, carp, ox head, boar’s head and other animals were an integral part of the grand display in an 18th century European dining room.

Some of the most eagerly contested lots in the Aynhoe Park: The Celebration of a Modern Grand Tour sale held by Dreweatts in Oxfordshire on January 20-21 were those created by the owner of the property himself.

The luxury perfumery l’Officina Profuma Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella in Florence is considered the oldest pharmacy in the world.

A copy of the Royal Doulton dinner service commissioned in 1922 for Queen Mary’s doll’s house sold for a top-estimate £30,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) as part of the Thomas Goode auction at Sotheby’s.

This 12½in (32cm) Vincennes circular dish or plat d’entremets from the first Louis XV service sold for £95,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) at Woolley & Wallis.

The Anschluss of 1938 between Nazi Germany and Austria had a devastating effect on Vienna’s Jewish population.

This 14in (36cm) diameter ‘double lustre’ shallow dish or charger by William De Morgan (1839-1917) is decorated in the so-called ‘Frightened Bird’ pattern.

The artist, cleric, schoolmaster and author William Gilpin (1724-1804) is best known as a champion of the Romantic idea of the picturesque.

In 1592, the Florentine stone carver Cosimo Castrucci (fl.1576-1602) was called to the imperial court in Prague by Rudolph II.

An item of local interest to bidders at Bamfords in Derby was this 18th century account book for Radbourne Hall, the seat of the Chandos-Pole family.

Two pieces by ‘Glasgow Four’ artists Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) and Frances Macdonald McNair (1873-1921) topped Lyon & Turnbull’s Decorative Arts: Design since 1860 auction on November 2-3.

As referenced in an inscription to the opening folio, this early 19th century manuscript – offered at Roseberys in south London – was produced for the Nawab of Sachin, Ibrahim Muhammed Yakut Khan I Bahadur (r.1802-53).

Relatively little is known about the 19th century woodcarver Francesco Toso, who was born in Murano, Venice, to a family of glass makers.

A Rowland Ward replica of a great auk – the flightless seabird that became extinct in the mid 19th century – sold at auction in Gloucestershire for £25,000.

Paintings by leading British sporting artists went under the hammer for the first time in over 100 years at Cheffins in Cambridge on October 1.

The invention of the gauger’s slide rule in the 1680s is generally credited to one Thomas Everard of Southampton.