Decorative Art

A temporary export block has been placed on Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Polar Medal in the hope a buyer in the UK can pay £1.7m.

A small 8in cast bronze relief or architectural element c.1900 designed by Art Nouveau and Art Deco master René Lalique was offered in Florida.

A Venetian Old Master painting of St Roch attributed to the circle of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696- 1770) awoke from the slumber of a $600-900 estimate to hammer for $75,000 (£59,000).

The first part of a sale offering the contents of a house on Belgrave Square went under the hammer at Bellmans (25% buyer’s premium).

Extensive array offered by Lyon & Turnbull concentrates on the first Scottish period of production

A rare silver and turquoise tazza designed by Erik Magnussen (1884-1961) for the Gorham Manufacturing Company sold for $24,000 (£19,000) at Schwenke Auctioneers (29/27% buyer’s premium) in Woodbury, Connecticut.

An 18th century Native American trade axe pipe linked to the great Shawnee chief and warrior Tecumseh (1768-1813) was the runaway performer when the collection of Ohio dealer and entrepreneur Bruce Knight was dispersed in the first days of the New Year.

Geoffrey Walton has a collection of 18th century cider and perry glasses. He has used his considerable knowledge of the items and the social background at the time they were made and used to write a book on the subject.

The Durrington Collection of Glass, a select 60-lot auction which Bonhams (28/27/21/14.4% buyer’s premium) offered for sale last year, featured some of the best examples of 18th century British glassmaking across a number of collectable categories.

A staple at American barber shops of the 19th and early 20th centuries was the occupational shaving mug.

Explorer and naval captain George Vancouver set sail from King’s Lynn in April 1791 aboard HMS Discovery to survey the Pacific Northwest coastline of North America.

This smiling tabby cat formed part of an extensive collection of Scottish Wemyss Ware sold at Lyon & Turnbull.

The novelty silver mounted glass claret jugs made in the form of birds and animals in the later Victorian era by goldsmith firms such as Alexander Crichton and Sampson Mordan were very popular in the later part of the 19th century.

When Australian auction house Artvisory offers the Robert Burke collection on February 19-20 in Melbourne it will launch around 300 lots of prime 18th century English porcelain onto the market.

Two exceptional pieces of Venini glass surfaced at auction in the final days of 2023 on different sides of the Atlantic.