Bonhams

Christie’s Jewels has appointed Eleanor Walper as associate vice president and specialist at Christie’s in Los Angeles.

The George I period giltwood and gilt gesso girandole or mirror shown here belonged to art historian, connoisseur and collector Ralph Edwards (1894-1977).

One of the earliest items of football memorabilia to appear at auction emerged at Bonhams in Knightsbridge: an England international goalkeeper shirt from 1879.

A collection of Chinese snuff bottles offered in two sessions stands out among an intriguing selection of Asia Week New York auctions and dealer shows.

Two letters in the hand of Benjamin Franklin, dating from 1782 and 1784 and both relating to the terms of the peace agreement between the newly independent USA and Britain that were being worked out during negotiations in Paris, provided the highest bids at Bonhams New York (27.5/25/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) on December 15.

This Irish bog oak canoe or trough was among the quirkier – and best-performing – lots in Bonhams’ (27.5/25/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) ‘without reserve’ sale of the Jim Lennon collection in Edinburgh on January 26.

The record-shattering sum of $41m paid for an extremely rare, 1787 first printing of the US Constitution at Sotheby’s New York last November was covered in ATG No 2520, but a sale held by the same auction house a few days later, on November 23, also contained rare items of American historical interest.

One of the highlights of the April 2007 London Islamic sale series had been this 2ft 4in (74cm) high white marble bust of Maharajah Duleep Singh by neoclassical sculptor John Gibson.

A Lloyd’s Patriotic Fund sword of £100 value took the honours at a Bonhams’ (27.5/25/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) sale of arms and armour.

The most unusual armour lot to emerge in recent sales was the late 16th century German brass parade cuirass which made £86,000 at Thomas Del Mar (20% buyer’s premium) in London on December 8.

Superb set of the Dickens classic was painstakingly assembled as originally issued

There are only three other known examples of this early David Hockney (b.1937) etching titled 'Self-Portrait (not in S.A.C. or Tokyo)'.

The full fall-out from the record-breaking Dr John P Driscoll sale of British studio ceramics is yet to be understood.

Trademark colourful picture features people depicted with a distinctive style of limbs.

A single-page letter sent on the day before Steve Jobs’ 19th birthday to a close school friend, Tim Brown, sold for $400,000 (£292,825) in New York.

A select 13-lot auction of works from the collection of Amalia de Schulthess at Bonhams (27.5/25/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) in New York on December 7 was led at $8.4m (£6.36m) by a classic René Magritte (1896-1967) Surrealist painting.