Auctioneers

This wonderful photo taken in 1914 shows the Coghill family plus a rather hairy friend: a rare large Steiff centre-seam teddy bear c.1906.

Lucy Peck ran The Dolls’ Home, a successful business that opened in Regent Street in London in 1893.

Ingenious design sold at auction involves a wind-out mechanism and extra pieces to fill

While this 1672 first did not quite hit the high of pre-sale hopes, it was still top lot of the Shrewsbury sale.

Such was the renown of toy collector the late Jack Tempest that when his collection came up for auction many of the bidders who flocked to the sale on November 10 recognised a lot of the items on offer.

British watercolours are reliant not just on subject matter but also on market freshness, condition and a good pitch

More than 20 yards of Morris & Co fabric and two Howard & Son chairs were among a group of lots consigned to auction in Wiltshire with a provenance to Haselbech Hall, Northampton, and the Bower Ismay family.

A pottery has stood in the Welsh village of Ewenny for five centuries but, with a few exceptions, the collecting market does tend to focus on the decorative slipwares produced under the influence of the Arts & Crafts movement.

In terms of numbers, both in component parts and the sum achieved, a collection of over 200 miniature books published by David Bryce of Glasgow (1845-1923) was a stand-out lot in a recent London sale.

A ‘Russian’ tunic from Chanel’s famed Spring 1922 collection sold for €100,000 (£86,000) in Paris – a record for her early work.

An Arts & Crafts goblet soared over estimate last week to land in the stock of dealer Anthony Bernbaum of The Peartree Collection, who recognised it as the work of John Paul Cooper (1869-1933).

Setting a major record for Duncan Grant (1885-1978) and equalling the highest price for any Bloomsbury Group picture, a painting depicting his fellow artist and close friend (and one-time lover) Vanessa Bell sold for £260,000 at Bonhams.

Chiswick Auctions has been busy recruiting since the move to new premises at the Barley Mow Centre in September.

A Tyne and Wear auction house has relocated and rebranded.

When coming across a female artist who was once quite recognised but now is rather little known, buyers today automatically ask the question: ‘Is she undervalued?’

A few copies have made a little more, but the example of the original, 1826, folio edition of Jacob George Strutt’s 'Sylva Britannica, or Portraits of Forest Trees…' included in a November 8 sale at Reeman Dansie (20% buyer’s premium) sold for £3500 (guide £600-800).

Once thought to have been made in antiquity, bucklers are now understood to have been late medieval or Tudor small shields.

The most desirable of the varied wares produced by the small ceramics factory established by Vilmos Zsolnay (1828-1900) in the south-west Hungarian town of Pecs are those created after the 1890s.

Calculations on planetary movements rise to the occasion in New York saleroom

Top result from the October 26 arms and armour auction at Munich saleroom Hermann Historica (25% buyer’s premium) was a 5ft 6in (1.67m) two-hand sword made by the acclaimed bladesmith Wolfgang Stantler II of Passau, c.1580.