Auctioneers

Stamford Auction Rooms set a house record when a Chinese pottery tripod censer shot over its £500-800 estimate to bring £320,000.

Auction house Tennants has stepped in to host The Northern Antiques Fair later this month after its usual Harrogate venue was not available.

The gun Pat Garrett used to kill Billy the Kid has been sold for a world auction record for any firearm at Bonhams in Los Angeles.

This near-complete Böttger Meissen tea set, c.1725, came for sale at Keys of Aylsham on September 1.

“The initial appeal of an object is always visual, and that is where the journey begins; research follows, and one is taken across the culture and geographical area which are both influencing forces on any work of art.”

An intriguing variation on an Old Master sparked a strong competition at Parker Fine Art (25% buyer’s premium) earlier this summer.

Following an upturn in the fortunes of the silver trade in York, an assay office reopened there in 1776 and remained active until final closure in 1858.

Cyrene, founded by Greeks c.631BC in the uplands near present-day Shahhat in Libya, reached the height of its prosperity in the 5th century BC.

Many of the lots in a June 16 sale of books, maps and pictures held by Thomson Roddick (18% buyer’s premium) in Carlisle came from the collections of the late Dr George Kozikowski of Skye, a microbiologist, archaeologist and antiquarian of Polish descent.

A tin of coins and medals consigned to Morton & Eden’s autumn sale included a number of early pieces from the American colonial period.

The sale at Sovereign Rarities on September 21 includes this Charles I (1625-49), silver pattern unite (20 shillings) dated 1630.

As the Silent Generation passes and Baby Boomers choose to divest, large deposits of once fashionable art and antiques are heading for auction in the US.

Mithradates VI was ruler of the Hellenistic kingdom of Pontus in northern Anatolia from 120-63BC and one of the Roman republic’s most formidable and determined opponents.

The rarest Scottish provincial town marks, known only from spoons and ladles, are those of Stonehaven, Ellon and Keith.

Siege money or ‘money of necessity’ was minted in Newark in 1646 during the town’s third siege and the last year of the First English Civil War.

Although condition remains a pivotal factor in the Old Master market, a number of lots sold recently in the UK regions suggest increasing interest for works that represent a promising restoration project.

Collection now up for sale was owned by soldier killed in Korea but kept safe by his brother