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A cocktail shaker

Cunard White Star line silver plate pieces snapped up

02 April 2026

Generating plenty of competition at Bonhams Skinner (28% buyer’s premium) was this lot of three pieces of Elkington & Co silver plate.

A 1958 British quad poster for Dracula

Hammer Horror hammers at $55,000

02 April 2026

Two 20th century posters in quite different genres set records at auction in early March.

A 19th century Samuel Alcock leech jar with original gilt decoration

Leech jars suck up the interest

02 April 2026

Though leeches do remain in the pharmacopeia, they’re no longer stored in the ceramic jars and urns common to pharmacies of the 18th and 19th century.

Wedgwood chess set

Pick of the week: Wedgwood made a move with Flaxman chess set

27 March 2026

The first mention of plans for a Wedgwood earthenware chess set occurs in a bill from a 30-year-old John Flaxman dated March 8, 1785.

Top Gun prop

Movie buffs dream auction features more than 1500 props and collectables

20 March 2026

Auction house Propstore is calling film fans and collectors to its three-day Entertainment Memorabilia sale.

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How complicated can it be – making the perfect watch

20 March 2026

If the period from the 19th to early 20th century was the ‘golden age’ for carriage clocks, it was equally a superb age for pocket watches

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Morse made it as a professional artist not just co-creator of code

20 March 2026

Samuel FB Morse (1791-1872) is today best known for his contributions to the creation of the single-wire telegraph system and the co-creator of the Morse code.

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British trophies win big in the US

20 March 2026

High quality sporting cups for Cowes Week yachting and Indian horse racing sell to American bidders

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Buffalo Bill postcard backs up poster sale at Las Vegas auction

20 March 2026

A hitherto unknown c.1902 lithographic poster for Buffalo Bill’s famed Wild West show hammered for $40,000 (£29,510) at Morphy Auctions (23% buyer’s premium) in Las Vegas.

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Advertising board and epergne with British links shoot to high sums at a US auction

20 March 2026

Witherell (25/26% buyer’s premium) in Sacramento, California, posted healthy results for two markedly different lots of British origin: a scarce sporting cartridge advertising display and a silver epergne.

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Icart print given beauty treatment at LA auction

20 March 2026

The 1931 etching, drypoint, and aquatint titled Two Beauties by French artist Louis Icart (1888-1950) features subjects he knew and loved.

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Come rain or shine, city or country, peepshow gives glimpse of the UK

13 March 2026

This seven-panel peepshow, an elaborate advertising campaign for Shell Oil, is offered for $2850 by Philip Salmon & Company at the Ephemera Society of America’s annual fair.

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Kelly captures look of a mysterious lady in black

13 March 2026

Eton pupil and Cambridge graduate Sir Gerald Festus Kelly (1879-1972) threw himself into art studies in Paris and ultimately became a successful society portraitist.

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Cloisonné enamel presentation cup by Rückert screams quality right away to a thrilled auctioneer

13 March 2026

Within a matter of a week, two US auction houses sold works of Russian decorative art from the era of Tsar Nicholas II for six-figure sums.

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City of London salutes Arctic explorer Ross with a freedom box

13 March 2026

A piece of British naval history and polar exploration history appeared at Millea Bros (25% buyer’s premium) in Boonton, New Jersey.

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Egypt brought to life in just two dimensions

13 March 2026

The artist Joseph Lindon Smith (1863-1950) is considered one of the most important figures in 20th century American Egyptology.

The Cornfield by John Constable

Texas museum’s Constable ‘copy’ now revealed as an autograph work ahead of auction

12 March 2026

A previously unknown study for The Cornfield by John Constable is being offered by Heritage Auctions in June.

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Trump tariffs ‘have slashed UK antiques exports to the US’, says BADA

27 February 2026

The value of exports of antiques from Britain to the US may have fallen by as much as 49% since US President Donald Trump began his tariff announcements in April 2025.

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Gentileschi’s Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy acquired by American gallery

27 February 2026

Coinciding with the latest Old Master auction series in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, announced the acquisition of Artemisia Gentileschi’s Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy.

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Bidding battle for battered teaching book shows rising demand for social artefacts

27 February 2026

Pristine first editions from sought-after authors or documents written by the luminaries of times past are usually the ones that command the greatest attention at book auctions.

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