Secretaire

Items with royal connections have extra cache for buyers when it comes to desirability and price. Here are four objects with direct connections to noble owners that are currently for sale across dealerships and auctions.

A walnut secretaire cabinet by Peter Waals (1870-1937) has sold for £34,000 at Bearne Hampton & Littlewood in Exeter.

A portable writing desk once owned by George Eliot is still missing after being stolen from Nuneaton Museum and Art Gallery.

Fireworks were seen in Edinburgh on November 5 when this Charles Voysey secretaire leapt above its modest £3000-5000 estimate to sell for £70,000 at Lyon & Turnbull's Decorative Arts sale.

With the recent closure of numerous manufacturing depots belonging to a Cardiff company, the time came to dispose of items from the manager’s flat. The best of these items, all of which were sold on November 20 at the Cardiff rooms of Anthemion Auctions, was this Regency mahogany secretaire bookcase.