John Nicholson

Demonstrating the continued interest in pocket watches by most renowned English makers, two Georgian watches, one signed for Thomas Earnshaw and the other for Thomas Mudge, achieved strong results for regional salerooms on the same day in March.

A professional diver snapped up a up a vintage US Navy diving helmet that surfaced in the middle of the English countryside.

John Nicholson’s (25% buyer’s premium) Fine Paintings sale in Fernhurst on February 20 included a good example of The Pictorial Missionary Map of the World - a rarity that appears at auction perhaps once in every decade.

Gifts given by the late Poet Laureate to his friend show how interesting items can be bought for three figures

Works by the Turkish artist Mubin Orhon (1924-81) can be a valuable proposition.

An intriguing inscription on a sword presented to a British army officer by the Sultan of Morocco helped to achieve a hammer price nearly 10 times the top estimate.

An elaborate Victorian meerschaum pipe stood out at a recent Surrey sale.

This medical spoon bears the crest and inscription The Princess Sophia (the 12th child of George III and Queen Charlotte).

Objects from Norwich, York, Ireland and Newcastle in recent sales give a snapshot of the market

The Assay Office in Norwich closed in 1702, so secular objects in particular that bear the city’s mark are rare. Rarer still are pieces bearing the mark of the only female silversmith registered in Norwich towards the end of that period.

There is some discolouring and it appears to have spent some considerable time folded up, but this early 19th century vellum document signed “Bonaparte” as Premier Consul was sold for £3000.

A set of the four volumes that make up William G Johnstone & Alexander Croall’s 'Nature-Printed British Sea-Weeds' of 1859-60 was offered in a December 21 sale at John Nicholson’s (20% buyer’s premium) in Fernhurst, Surrey.

In 1602 the Dutch painter and printmaker Jan Saenredam made an engraving of a whale that had been washed ashore near the town of Beverwijk.

Relatively few English mapmakers came to the fore in the 17th century at a time when Dutch cartographers were well ahead of the competition.

Oddly titled by its creator as such, an extraordinary watercolour featured on August 10 at John Nicholson’s (25% buyer’s premium) of Fernhurst.

Range of Sèvres highlights from ancien regime to the empire periods sold in UK auctions

The city of Liverpool holds a special place in the oeuvre of John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836-93).

Georg Siegmund Stobwasser (1717-76) and his son Johann Heinrich (1740-1829) were among many craftsmen who moved to Brunswick during the Seven Years’ War.

Two exceptional examples of ethnographic art – one from the north-west coast of America, the other for Polynesia – sold in the UK regions last month.

Our weekly selection from salerooms.