Metalware

A rare 17th century Chinese silver ewer has been acquired by the Palace of Versailles in a private treaty sale conducted by the auction firm Beaussant Lefèvre. It is the only known surviving piece of silverware from a lavish diplomatic gift presented to Louis XIV by the King of Siam (Thailand) in 1686.

The sale of three Blue John and ormolu-mounted urns could mark a purple patch for a family-run north London auction house this month.

A family are calling on the antiques trade to help them locate brass artefacts stolen from a private chapel in Walton upon Trent in Derbyshire.

The theft of a 19th century postbox in Asthall Leigh in west Oxfordshire earlier this year has led local councillors to fear criminals are targeting specific postboxes to sell on for hundreds of pounds.

The Bruton Museum in Somerset has bought a rare silver tankard at nearby saleroom Lawrences of Crewkerne.

Police are appealing to the trade to help find a number of bronze statues that were stolen from an antiques dealer in Bath.

Many who viewed a Barkentin and Krall chalice at JS Auctions in Bodicote, Oxfordshire will have hoped to win it close to its £300-500 estimate.

This Italian baroque bronze depicting ‘Ganymede and the Eagle’ by Massimiliano Soldani-Benzi (1656-1740) proved the highlight of Lyon & Turnbull’s recent sale in Edinburgh.

Two large 18th century gold medals depicting events from the reign of Catherine the Great sold for spectacular sums at Duke’s latest auction in Dorchester.

This copper-gilt coffin plate, bearing an inscription in Latin with the dates of Oliver Cromwell’s birth, death and inauguration as Lord Protector and the arms of the Protectorate to the reverse, was found when his body was exhumed from the Henry VII chapel at Westminster Abbey on January 26, 1661.

With the Scottish referendum only weeks away, there could hardly be a better time to offer a replica of a reliquary which for centuries was a powerful symbol of Scotland’s national identity.