Auctioneers

The mammoth disposal of the Aristophil collections of historic manuscripts began last week with a premium-inclusive €17.6m series of seven June auctions offered over four days at Drouot (June 15 and 18-20).

The Horlicks collection of Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson furniture will be sold at auction in Stansted Mountfitchet this autumn.

A long-running legal dispute over a Fatimid rock crystal ewer that had been due to sell at Sotheby’s has been settled in court.

Three 18th century English carved and painted wooden dolls, in the same family for over two centuries, were sold at Specialist Auction Services of Newbury on June 19.

A sophisticated disc-playing music box brought one of the highest recent prices for mechanical music at Thimbleby & Shorland (12% buyer’s premium) in Reading.

Camels are the linking theme of the two lots illustrated here, so a verse by Ogden Nash copied below seems to fit the bill.

No two jobs are the same for the art shippers offering a bespoke service at the top end.

The morality laws of pre-liberal Ireland added to the allure and market value of this Goldfinger poster offered by Richard Winterton (17.5% buyer’s premium).

The earliest publication in any form of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar came with its inclusion as part of the 1623 First Folio, and in a recent US sale a bound set of the 22pp that it occupied in that great work prompted a six-figure bid.

For many years now, German Enigma code machines have been making big, sums at auction, but in the Bonhams New York June 12 sale a slim codebook relating to their use also prompted a much, much higher than expected and six-figure bid.

Less well-known than other daring young women in their flying machines, Peggy Salaman, or rather a bronze bust of her, emerged from a Mayfair basement to take off in a Suffolk saleroom.

Germany’s most expensive painting sold at auction, an unusual early firearm and a fin de siècle snake charmer are among the highlights featured here from recent auctions in Munich, Berlin and Cologne.

Nearly 500 lots of Modern British and 20th century art went under the hammer at Woolley & Wallis (25/12% buyer’s premium) in Salisbury to notch up a total of £535,000 with three-quarters sold.

"He had taken a taxi from Heathrow to Easingwold. After fierce bidding on the phones and internet he bought it, put it in his suitcase and the taxi was still waiting outside the saleroom with the meter ticking to go back to Heathrow.”

Like many businesses scarred with bomb damage in post-war Britain, Lyons teashops were in need of cheering up.

Market rebounds with £13.5m Franz Marc record at Christie’s after guaranteed works fail at Sotheby’s...

A typically moody oil by the Scottish painter James Pryde (1866-1941) was among the star lots at Cuttlestones (17.5% buyer’s premium) in Penkridge, Staffordshire.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.