A once neglected aspect of the silver market received a showpiece sale in February. ATG reports on the Stewart collection of Anglo-Indian silver from the Raj period.

Spotted sitting among modern pottery on the windowsill of a small cottage, a meiping porcelain vase with ‘robin’s egg’ blue glaze was the plum piece.

Estimated at a mere £20-40, this Islamic brass bowl on a later associated stand sold for £11,000 at Taylors (25% buyer’s premium) in Montrose.

Dr Christopher Dresser’s conical sugar bowl with three angled leg-like supports is one of the great ‘eureka’ moments in Victorian design.

Cups with coconut bowls mounted in silver or silver-gilt were fashionable rarities in western Europe throughout the 16th and early 17th century. At the time the coconut was, like other ‘exotics’ such as nautilus shells or imported pottery and porcelain, held in high esteem.

Size, quality and sheer Irishness made the tankard shown here the toast of the silver sold at Ipswich auction house Lockdales (19.5% buyer’s premium).

The quasi-medieval silver and glass ‘claret bottle’ designed by Charles Robert Ashbee for the Guild of Handicraft is one of the great pieces of the Arts & Crafts movement. Ashbee mentions it in his 1909 book Modern English Silver, saying: “The shape is taken from an Elizabethan sack-bottle found when digging the foundations of [my home] the Magpie and Stump in Chelsea.”

Our selection of 13 upcoming lots at UK auctions.

Research reveals £265,000 auction purchase is a celebrated work from Grand Ducal workshops

This 13 x 13in (33 x 33cm) brick is from the walls of Babylon and dates from 604-562BC.

While they may not appear such comfortable bedfellows today, the novel weapons of mass destruction created during the First World War were deemed a perfectly suitable subject for novelty trinkets of the day.

A selection of 11 upcoming lots available at UK and Irish auctions.

The Shang period (c.1600-1045BC) is the first of China’s many epochs from which written documents survive.

The firm established in Switzerland nearly 140 years ago achieved many ‘firsts’ in chronograph production. ATG considers the market for some of the most famous references from the Navitimer to the ‘Thunderball’ Top Time

Over the years, the Navitimer has undergone a variety of cosmetic and mechanical changes. Pictured here are three iterations of the watch as it evolved across two decades.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again,” comments Fellows’ watch specialist Kes Crockett. “Jaeger LeCoultre is the best watchmaker in the world. Rolex is without question the most well-known manufacturer and Patek Philippe has produced some of the most collectable watches on the market. However, JLC arguably has a richer and more important horological history than both.”

The Fifty Fathoms watch was born in the 1950s from the encounter between the Swiss firm Blancpain (by then using the legal trading name Rayville) and two French naval officers, Capt Robert Maloubier and Lt Claude Riffaud.