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The generally encouraging start to the year enjoyed by English auctioneers extends to Scotland where Lyon & Turnbull (25% buyer’s premium) enjoyed a buoyant season-opener.

The many voyages made in search of the lost Franklin expedition feature strongly in another spotlight on polar exploration covering sales in London and New York. The splendid Martin Greene library again provides notable highlights.

Fighter pilot, antiques dealer, and lifelong bon vivant, Peter Foyle Hunwick (1934-2018) grew up in Foyle’s, a Sussex manor in Herstmonceaux, before attending RAF Cranwell.

Under the overall command of James Clark Ross, one of the earlier major expeditions to the Antarctic regions focused principally on magnetic and geographical investigations – but others aboard had different priorities.

Cautiously catalogued as mid-19th century and suffering some damage, a large suzani attracted international interest at the Andrew Smith & Son (19% buyer’s premium) Winchester sale.

Sold at £6000 in a recent Scottish sale was an early golfing item. The 1839 edition of Rules of the Game of Golf adopted by the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers shown below was still in the original wrappers and bore an 1852 ownership inscription of one Henry Wells.

Printed in Mexico in 1787, but promoted as the first book in English printed west of the Mississippi, a slim work of just 14 leaves in contemporary paper wrappers called A Short Abridgment to Christian Doctrine was one of the rarer items offered in a recent California sale.

In the flourishing market of British studio ceramics, a raft of new names is gaining traction.

MADAM – No amount of banning the sale of the millions of items containing antique ivory will stop the wholesale slaughter of elephants in Africa.

Pretty, petite and French – a seductive combination which won admirers of this kingwood and floral marquetry escritoire at Mallams’ (20% buyer’s premium) Oxford rooms.

Olivier Malingue launched his eponymous New Bond Street gallery in 2016 and has devoted its business to bringing older pieces into contemporary frameworks.

MADAM – Are people aware of the compensation that the UK Government paid out when the handgun ban came into force after the Dunblane massacre in 1996?

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period February 15-21, 2018. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

Skilfully designed to catch salmon, fishing flies and lures hooked enthusiasts at Shropshire sporting specialist Mullock’s (20% buyer’s premium) fishing sale which included the work of two great names in the angling lexicon.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

BAMF chairman and new chief executive address LAPADA conference

The contribution of Britain’s ‘regional’ salerooms – defined here as those outside the big London four of Sotheby’s, Christie’s, Bonhams and Phillips – is frequently overlooked when figures demonstrating the size of the UK auction market for art and antiques are created.

Made in Switzerland for the Turkish market, in the late 19th century this zarf (coffee cup), below, had endured some rough treatment over the years before appearing at the Shropshire rooms of Trevanion & Dean (19% buyer’s premium).

A fascinating archive of designs for Brunel’s Thames Tunnel sold at Bonhams was bought by a museum dedicated to the pioneering structure to form the centrepiece of a £4.5m expansion, it has been revealed.