Auctioneers

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

Three modestly valued works in regional sales.

A quartet of weapons with fascinating histories sold recently at regional UK auctions.

Lenses and slides caught the eye of buyers at specialist science and early technology auctioneer Flints (20% + VAT buyer’s premium) at its two-day sale of Fine Photographica & Instruments of Science & Medicine.

Not, perhaps, the face modern eyes would immediately think of captivating an emperor, but this porcelain plaque portrait of Napoleon’s first wife, Josephine, was one of a number of major attractions at Canterbury Auction Galleries’ (24% buyer’s premium) Spring Sale.

Whatever the collective noun is for carriage-driving enthusiasts is – a whip-round? – they were gathered from across Europe for the dispersal of the collection of the UK’s doyenne of the carriage trade.

A rare James II ‘gunmoney’ half-crown sold for €10,500 (£8850) at Whyte’s sale titled the Eclectic Collector in Dublin.

The Auctioneers and Valuers Association (AVAA), a trade body representing Australian auction houses, has called for client accounts to become a compulsory legal requirement in the country.

Three extra French auctioneers are to assist in the mammoth disposal of the Aristophil collections of historic manuscripts.

The epic white-glove sale of the David and Peggy Rockefeller collection at Christie’s New York has established a new high for a single-owner auction.

Mexican lots, one of them relating to the working of a silver mine in the 16th century, produced some of the higher bids in a recent Americana sale.

If pictures provided the backbone of the Dodo Hamilton collection, then there was no denying the sale’s most popular entries: a large selection of polychrome painted rattan and wicker conservatory furniture, perfect for the Florida beach house.