Pick of the Week

Was this the gun that John James Audubon (1785-1851) used to create the world’s most expensive natural history book?

“A truly beautiful medal and a royal provenance make this something quite out of the ordinary. And, without hesitation, we can say that it is unique.” Stephen Fenton, specialist at Baldwin’s of St James’s, singled out a George IV accession medal as a highlight of the Peter Earthy collection.

Proof of a burgeoning market, a series of stellar results for British studio pottery were posted at the ‘Made in Britain’ sale conducted by Sotheby’s on Bond Street.

It was of early manufacture, looked beautiful and the condition was very good – but auctioneer Ben Rogers Jones admits to still being mystified as to why a paperweight sold for such a hefty price at his Cardiff saleroom.

Posters advertising the first-ever public screening of a film, which took place in Paris in 1895, have hardly ever emerged outside France. While one is known in an American collection, the appearance of another at Sotheby’s latest online film posters auction understandably caused some excitement.

Gary Arkell of Loddon Auctions was ready to toast a record-breaking success when lot 718 in the Berkshire saleroom’s latest auction sold for what is believed to be a record price for a beer label of £1500.

Early British army uniforms were the highlight of an extensive single-owner militaria collection amassed by a long-standing Nottinghamshire family which was offered at Stroud Auctions.

A ship painting by the artist regarded as the first great Trinidadian painter, Michel-Jean Cazabon (1813-88), surfaced for sale at Cumbrian auction house PFK earlier this month.

The Shropshire pottery, Maw & Co of Jackfield, is best known for the mass production of earthenware tiles and architectural ceramics.

Part of the intake for a general sale, a terracotta sculpture by a protégé of Antonio Canova sold for £21,000 (plus premium) at Reeman Dansie in Colchester.

Amusing animals assuming human characteristics are not just for social media. The anthropomorphic figure groups modelled by George Tinworth (1843-1913) for the Doulton Lambeth factory rank among the best of all Victorian art pottery.

Estimated at £200,000-300,000, the 'Hours of Isabella d’Este' sold at £340,000 (plus buyer’s premium) at Bloomsbury Auctions’ sale of Western and Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures on July 10.

A Lesser George sash badge of The Most Noble Order of the Garter was the stand-out lot in a dedicated auction of honours that once belonged to the last Duke of Cambridge to have held that title before Prince William in the present day.

A rare medieval gold head of a saint generated significant interest at a sale in Paris conducted by Pierre Bergé & Associés at the Hôtel Drouot.

Three 18th century English carved and painted wooden dolls, in the same family for over two centuries, were sold at Specialist Auction Services of Newbury on June 19.

“It was totally unexpected – as the best finds always are,” Derbyshire auctioneer Charles Hanson told ATG. “A client came along to our office in East Molesey carrying a cardboard box. Inside, wrapped in an old tea towel, was not one, but two, Fabergé flowers.”

By 1677, the great English clockmaker Thomas Tompion (1639-1713) was subletting part of his famous London premises – The Dial and Three Crowns at Water Lane – to one Jasper Braem or Bream (fl.1677-96).

Searching online for the term ‘skirt lifter’ is probably unwise in the public domain, but an intriguing item sold at Graham Budd’s latest auction shows it is a popular collecting field.

Catalogued simply as ‘a pair of English soft-paste porcelain models of parrots’, these rare 18th century figures by Bow sold at Thomas Watson in Darlington, County Durham, for £16,000 (plus 24% buyer’s premium) on May 15.

A rare James II ‘gunmoney’ half-crown sold for €10,500 (£8850) at Whyte’s sale titled the Eclectic Collector in Dublin.