London

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

Exhibitors at The Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair in Battersea Park celebrated a busy event, with opening day sales up by about 10% on the last fair held in January 2020.

Housed in his home – Fox Pointe Manor in Anaheim, southern California – the rare book collection of radiologist Howard Knohl and his interior designer wife Linda reached more than 80,000 volumes.

Consigned by Frieda Hughes, who was not yet three years old when her mother took her own life, a collection of Sylvia Plath’s letters to Ted Hughes was sold by Sotheby’s (26/20/13.9% buyer’s premium) in a timed online auction.

This 9in (23cm) Iznik jug from Ottoman Turkey, c.1580, has an estimate of £40,000-60,000 at Christie’s Art of the Islamic & Indian Worlds sale on October 28.

Tolkien classic in bespoke binding is one of the highlights as the London event returns

On October 21 in London Plakas is offering this endowment document for the religious complex of the vizier Zaganos Pasha in Balikesir with the tughra of Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror, dated beginning of jumada i AH866/February.

Propped up against a huge bolster and bedecked in jewels sits Navneetpriyaji, one of the child manifestations of the Hindu deity Krishna.

This 19th century painting illustrates a scene from the Devi Mahatmya, a famous Sanskrit text centred on the figure of the Hindu mother goddess Devi.

This October, the capital hosts The London Autumn Book Fair – a fresh addition to the Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association’s (PBFA) 2021 calendar.

Made from green chlorite mineral rather than bronze, this 8th century Kashmiri sculpture group represents the Hindu god Vishnu with his two attendants, Gadadevi and Chakrapurusha.

The Islamic and Indian Art sale at Chiswick Auctions on October 29 includes this gilt and painted shield made in north-western India (possibly Rajasthan) in the first half of the 18th century.

This Indian gold necklace with a fringe of ruby and imitation pearl drops and flowerheads of green paste and moonstone has a guide of £1800-2400 at Bonhams’ sale of Islamic and Indian art on October 25.

According to the memoir Le Mémorial de Sainte- Hélène by Count Emmanuel de Las Cases published in 1823, Napoleon first expressed an interest to learn the English language during the two-month voyage from Europe to the island in 1815 aboard the Northumberland.

Made from fired clay, this 12in (30cm) high bust head of a bodhisattva comes from a little explored group of sculptures found at Hund, a small township on the ancient site of Udabhandapura in Pakistan, once the capital of the Hindu Shahi kingdom.

Hummingbirds collect nectar against a colourful flora and fauna backdrop in this large 3ft (91cm) square oil on canvas, painted earlier this year by Sri Lankan artist Senaka Senanayake (b.1951).

One of Persian scholar Imam Ghazali’s (1058-1111AD) best-known works, Kimiya-yi Sa’ādat (The Alchemy of Happiness), was compiled late in his lifetime during a period of unrest between Sufi mystics and Islamic scholars – the former accused of overphilosophising Islam and neglecting the importance of ritual practices.

The Books and Works on Paper sale at Chiswick Auctions on November 9 includes a rather special copy of Sir William Gell and John P Gandy’s The Topography, Edifices, and Ornaments of Pompeii.