Pick of the Week

Arts & Crafts enthusiasts who hoped to buy a pair of Voysey chairs at something close to their £20-40 estimate at an auction in the Cotswolds were to be disappointed.

David Lay’s (18% buyer's premium) second stand-alone Asian art sale held in Penzance was topped at £65,500 (estimate £3000-5000) by this shodana made in Meiji period Japan, c.1890.

The arts of the Ottoman court are performing strongly in the marketplace. The unexpected highlight of Lyon & Turnbull’s Five Centuries auction in Edinburgh on February 5 was an Ottoman saddle.

An early 17th century Limoges enamel draw purse attracted a flurry of bids at Chorley’s Attic Sale in Gloucestershire. Set with period portraits of a lady on one side and a gentleman on the other, the accessory has remained intact for about 400 years – in most examples the fabric has deteriorated significantly.

Claymores (the word comes from the Scottish Gaelic claidheamh-mor meaning ‘great sword’) were the weapon of choice in the ongoing warfare between Highland clans and border skirmishes with the English from c.1400-1700.

An unusual but welcome inclusion to the latest silver and vertu sale at Lawrences of Crewkerne was a medieval walrus ivory tableman or backgammon piece.

A sale of art and antiques from a Worcestershire manor house included the rare appearance at auction of two examples of Opus Anglicanum.

Michael Faraday’s laboratory notebook from 1851 includes a series of diagrams illustrating what he called ‘magnetic lines of force’ – the magnetic field lines that are central to the study of electromagnetism and electrochemistry.

Cotswolds steel masterworks bring £50,000.

Personal devotional prayer books, known as a Book of Hours, were popular among the wealthy and powerful in late medieval Europe. Illuminated with miniature paintings depicting the life of Christ, the Virgin Mary and saints, they were sometimes personalised for the patrons who commissioned them.

A vase by the great cameo glass artist George Woodall (1850-1925) was offered at auction for the first time at Bonhams’ sale of Fine Glass and British Ceramics last week.

An archive of material relating to Porthia Prints, a short-lived company that harnessed the talents of a host of St Ives artists, proved a sell-out success at Lyon & Turnbull’s Modern Made auction in Fitzrovia, London. The 24-lot section of original designs and textiles came for sale ‘from an important St Ives artist’s estate’.

A hitherto unknown portrait of Nelson sold for three times the top estimate at the Charles Miller (24% buyer’s premium) auction on November 5.

This sculptural white porcelain group of Ganymede and the Eagle is a rare survivor from the St James’s factory run by Charles Gouyn in London c.1749-60.

The opening lot of Flints Auctions’ photographica and scientific instruments sale in Reading on October 18 was an exceptional Victorian microscope.

“Germany calling, Germany calling” were the chilling opening words spoken by the upper-class British accent of William Joyce – Lord Haw Haw – and other presenters in propaganda radio broadcasts from Nazi Germany during the Second World War.

Albrecht Dürer’s medal dedicated to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, is among the most important medals of the Northern Renaissance. As only four are known to commerce, the appearance of one for sale is significant.

A tribal war club from the Marquesas Islands with textbook provenance has sold for £71,000 at Woolley & Wallis. The u’u (head club) came for sale at the Salisbury saleroom from the descendants of an early-19th century missionary.

Until electricity became commonplace in homes, the power source of choice for the gramophone was a spring motor that required frequent winding. One unusual solution to silent interludes at the dinner dance was to power the device by hot air.