Pick of the Week

Florentine pietra dura animal panels from home of art dealer Sir Jack Mervyn Frank Baer take six-figure sum.

This ‘St George and the Dragon’ Pilkington’s Royal Lancastrian plaster panel came for sale at Gildings in Market Harborough by descent from Abraham Lomax.

A lot offering Action Man outfits and accessories from the flock hair period c.1970 sold for 100 times the low estimate at a Devon saleroom thanks to a considerable rarity it contained.

A two-volume manuscript used to determine swan ownership in East Anglia from the 16th to the 19th century was sold by Sworders for a remarkable £54,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium).

A previously unknown sketchbook of watercolours and drawings relating to the California Gold Rush took £16,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) at Chiswick Auctions.

A recent sale at Aldridges of Bath (20% buyer’s premium) included a fine George IV period mahogany extending dining table.

The murder of William Weare in the Hertfordshire village of Radlett in 1823 has been called the first trial by newspaper.

He may have been considered ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know’ but items connected to Lord Byron (1788-1824) make for very welcome auction consignments.

Although he initially specialised in small furnishing objects and statuettes, the Parisian bronzier Victor Paillard (1805-86) began exhibiting with more elaborate creations in the 1840s.

Despite appearing in a 1930s photograph held in the MAK Museum, Vienna, this wood carving of Adam and Eve seems to have hitherto eluded scholars of the German woodcarver Leonhard Kern (1588-1662).

Abraham Barachin became the last silversmith to use the Hull town mark of three ducal coronets.

Two plates from a Minton dinner service designed by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-52) for his personal use appeared for sale in Derbyshire last week.

A collection of pop culture ephemera and football memorabilia found in a Cotswold bungalow was offered across 390 lots at auction.

Works by John Bellany (1942-2013) abound at auction, with at least 2000 pictures sold in the last 10 years.

By 1920, as a new era of aero-engined racing cars threatened to break the 100mph barrier, the emerging sport of motor racing required better and more precise time-keeping.

From the very beginning, the Meissen factory sought close trade relations with the Augsburg goldsmiths.

This pair of satinwood demilune console tables with their fine marquetry and carved details are of exceptional quality and workmanship. The Thomas Chippendale workshop is a good candidate for their manufacture.

Sperm whale teeth, acquired from mammals that had beached on local reefs, had a deep significance to Fijian society.

Among the most extraordinary of all navigational charts are the lattice ‘stick maps’ used by Marshall Islanders.

The Battle of Britain or Dambusters are usually involved when it comes to sizeable Royal Air Force medal results.