Pick of the Week

One of around 30 known medieval English folding almanacs, and one of only a few in private hands, sold for £95,000 (plus 20% buyer’s premium) at Tennants.

Estimated at £40,000-60,000, a lacquer cabinet from Edo period Japan sold for £105,000 at Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury on November 23.

A copy of the first folio atlas ever printed in the Islamic world has sold for £69,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) – the highlight of the first day of Dreweatts’ sale titled Weston Hall and the Sitwells: A Family Legacy.

“From then on, nothing went right. My carpet designs were rejected and my textiles were not required."

Connecting two of Britain’s leading 20th century female artists, a pencil drawing by Dame Barbara Hepworth (1903-75) given to Wilhelmina Barns-Graham (1912-2004) as a wedding present was the highlight of Lyon & Turnbull’s recent auction of works from the latter’s collection.

Maltese silver pieces auctioned in the UK return to the Mediterranean island.

Emile Berliner (1851-1921), a German clerk in a Washington DC haberdashery, is credited with inventing both the first commercially successful disc record and the first machine to play it.

A pair of Sphinx garden ornaments estimated at just £300-500 at a Suffolk auction were hammered down at £195,000.

A group of 52 Tudor, Stuart and Commonwealth England hammered gold coins rediscovered after 60 years shine at auction.

A Venetian painting attributed to the great Canaletto (1697-1798) was offered at Gorringe’s (23% buyer’s premium) latest auction, selling for £300,000.

This rare Victorian silver vesta case with an enamelled scene of an early tiller-driven automobile is hallmarked for Sampson Mordan & Co, London 1896.

Estimated at £400-600, this 7in (17cm) high Chinese export silver dragon handled tankard sold for a much higher sum.

This near-complete Böttger Meissen tea set, c.1725, came for sale at Keys of Aylsham on September 1.

The record for American ceramics – previously held by Salisbury’s Woolley & Wallis – was smashed this month by a ‘Dave the Slave’ jar.

The National Library of Wales was among the successful bidders when an archive relating to the poet and painter John Dyer (1699-1757) emerged for sale in Yorkshire this month.

A solitary English blue and white porcelain coffee cup emerged from the relative anonymity of a one-line catalogue description and a £120-180 estimate to sell for £4100 at Keys in Aylsham on July 24.

One of only two known copies of the first edition of the rules of football printed by the world’s first football club came to auction at Sotheby’s on July 21.

A rare Georgian print on a sporting theme was offered by Northumberland auction house.

A Renaissance helmet sold at a London auction will be reunited with its garniture (set of armour) after being bought by Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA).

Charles Carroll’s printed copy of the Declaration of Independence – discovered earlier this year in a Scottish family home – sold at auction in Philadelphia for $3.7m (£2.85m) plus premium.