A three-day auction at Bellmans in West Sussex on June 18- 20 includes a 6½in (16.5cm) high Höchst porcelain figurine of a Harlequin playing ram bagpipes, c.1750-53.
It was probably modelled by Johann Gottfried Becker, who previously worked at Meissen, and bears a painter's mark B for Philipp Magnus Bechel.
Estimate £600-800.
bellmans.co.uk or see this item on thesaleroom.com
Well-preserved William and Mary tea canisters are among the highlights of Bishop & Miller’s Fine Art & Antiques auction on June 22 in Stowmarket, Suffolk.
The pair – purchased many years ago by the vendor’s husband in Suffolk – are made of tortoiseshell and silver with the pique work caps decorated with a bird. They are estimated together at £1000-1500.
A similar tea canister, also dated to the late 17th century, is in the British Museum.
Fijian clubs that have resided in the same private collection for over 50 years will go under the hammer at Charterhouse in Sherborne on June 21.
Assembled by a former civil servant working in Fiji, the group includes this large Vunikau rootstock war club estimated at £800-1200. With its mace type head and carved handle (shown in close-up above) with typical zigzag decoration, these weapons were favoured for fighting in open grassland where the reach could be deadly.
With its long history of warfare and ceremonial cannibalism, Fiji has more styles of native weapons than anywhere else in the Pacific Islands.
charterhouse-auction.com or see this item on thesaleroom.com
This 19th century leather dog collar is believed to have belonged to Dash II – the favourite canine of the explorer and archaeologist Aurel Stein (1862-1943).
Stein (who named all seven of his dogs Dash and numbered them accordingly), acquired Dash II (also known as Dash the Great) in 1904, and took him on his second expedition into central Asia between 1906-08. It was during this trip that Stein made one of his greatest discoveries – a printed copy of the Diamond Sutra, the oldest surviving dated printed book in the world.
Dash II was a regular presence in Stein’s journals (particularly in the popular 1912 memoir Ruins of Desert Cathay) and this collar features nine engraved copper plaques listing the various locations he visited. It is estimated at £1000-1500 on June 22 at Dawson’s in Maidenhead.
