Auctioneers

Two big-name sources – the Cox collection and the Macklowe collection – lead the way as Modern and Contemporary art market shows recovery from pandemic impact

A copy of the first folio atlas ever printed in the Islamic world has sold for £69,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) – the highlight of the first day of Dreweatts’ sale titled Weston Hall and the Sitwells: A Family Legacy.

Few lots in the Design since 1860 sale held by Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh were more admired than a series of Art Nouveau pencil and watercolour jewellery drawings by Frances Macdonald McNair (1873-1921).

Library on offer at Forum auction in London was based on works collected by a man whose roles ranged from alchemist to diplomat

Estimated at £200-300, this kaskara sold for £8200 at Dawsons (23% buyer’s premium) in Maidenhead on October 28.

Leering 4ft 7in (1.4m) out from the saleroom wall and with a 4ft 2in (50cm) antlers spread, a massive taxidermy moose head and shoulders was the major trophy at the best-yet biannual Country and Sporting sale at Mitchells (22% buyer’s premium).

Rounding off the Wedgwood section of Skinner’s December 3 auction of European Furniture and Decorative Arts is a small selection of Fairyland lustre ware.

The windmill cup was the most popular of the novelty silver wager cups produced from the late 16th century until the early 18th century.

Top names in their different fields, ages and markets, Wurlitzer and Armand Marseilles were the star makers at Hartleys (17.5% buyer’s premium).

The Spanish woollen rug illustrated here was pitched at £100-200 in Mallams’ (25% buyer’s premium) Abingdon rooms on October 18.

A collection of silver assembled over half a century by a Brussels general practitioner with a passion for 18th century French silver is to be offered for sale by Dupont & Associés, Morlaix Enchères, at Drouot in Paris on December 6.

In a recent Financial Times article titled 'Dangerous baubles for boys', historian and style journalist Nick Foulkes commented that a friend had “described my hands as looking like a cabinet of curiosities trying to emulate a pair of knuckledusters”.

In demand at home and abroad during his lifetime, the eminent miniaturist John Smart was an international draw at a trio of sales.

Running to just 20 or so words, a tiny signed card in which Abraham Lincoln instructs Edwin Stanton to meet with the African-American abolitionist and officer Martin Delany in Washington led the bidding at Doyle (26/21/15% buyer’s premium) on September 23.

As very personal items, typically weighing little more than an ounce of bullion, the most numerous silver survivors from the 17th century are spoons.