A rare colourway of the Ravilious for Wedgwood coronation mug took a bid of £13,500 at Gildings - a record price for Eric Ravilious ceramics.

Its survival a mystery for years, a rare 1950s Meccano store display figure has surfaced in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Any gold ‘wandering hour’ watch made prior to the introduction of the balance spring is a rarity.

Our selection of lots from eight upcoming auctions

Gordon Mitchell Forsyth (1879-1952) is best known as a ceramicist - specifically for his work as art director at the Pilkington’s Lancastrian factory from 1903-14 and his subsequent teaching career as superintendent of art instruction in Stoke-on-Trent.

Moorcroft pottery collection offered in Essex saleroom had a great focus on signed wares of the initial Macintyre era when the designer was at his prime

Small-scale Mouseman carvings were typically made in Kilburn for promotional purposes – attracting custom at the Yorkshire Show or similar trade events. Rarities continue to bring muscular sums in the salerooms.

With its exaggerated, curved armrests, ample cushioning and cantilevered frame, the H269 bentwood chair is perhaps the best known of all Czech industrial furniture designs.

The inaugural sale at Rare Book Auctions (26.5% buyer’s premium) in Lichfield included this signed and inscribed first printing of Terry Pratchett’s 'The Colour of Magic'.

Not only was this Robert Wallace Martin (1843-1923) a stoneware ‘face’ jug deemed an excellent example of its type, but it was sold with a hand-written letter to David Oxen Esq, the original buyer of the jug in 1914.

The Scottish printer David Bryce (1845-1923) said that when he “descended to the miniature, mite and midget size” he had “many a scoff and jeer as to the absurdity of the production”.

In 1897 Charles Francis Annesley Voysey agreed a contract with Alexander Morton and Co to provide designs for a minimum of 10 textile designs each year for five years.

A selection of upcoming lots focusing on stand-out items from two key design movements

Designed by George Tinworth, c.1885, this Doulton Lambeth spill vase commemorates the first transatlantic phone call between the UK and the US.

Relatively little is known about the German-born artist and designer Elsa Tennhardt (1899-1980).

A recent sale at Claydon Auctioneers (21.5% buyer’s premium) in Buckinghamshire included a suite of aluminium bedroom furniture by the HG Hawker Engineering Company.