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A set of five Victorian diamond six-point star brooches sold for £26,000 at Golding Young & Mawer (20% buyer’s premium) on January 24. As each star has a hook fitting and a screw fitting for attachment, the set was probably once part of a suite consisting of frames for a tiara, necklace, earrings and brooches.

Extending from the tip of Manhattan as far north as 42nd Street, this large-scale Map of the City of New York of 1850 identifies by means of symbols and a key the city’s churches, schools, hotels, public buildings, parks, cemeteries and other places of interest.

The December 6 jewellery sale at Roseberys (23% buyer’s premium) was the maiden auction for new head of department Mark Bowis.

Launched in 1965, TV Century 21 featured the work of some of the best comic artists of the day – among them Ron Turner, whose contributions included strips featuring The Daleks, Stingray and Captain Scarlet.

Dorothy McEwan (1925-2017), who died in December, was the founder of The McEwan Gallery in Scotland. She was not your typical art dealer – if such a one exists.

Two exceptionally rare celestial globes or spheres have made their mark in Geneva and London salerooms in recent times – and on the same day.

Christopher Howe has been dealing from the Pimlico Road area for the past 30 years but he likes to shake things up.

Works on paper, not oil paintings, stole the show at Lawrences (22% buyer’s premium) of Crewkerne.

Contemporary jewellery designer Wendy Ramshaw’s earlier work, including her signature ring stacks first made in 1967, is coming back onto the market.

Among the most desirable of all Second World War wristwatches – a strong suit in this currently hot collecting arena – is the Panerai 3646. This distinctive model was initially intended for the Royal Italian Navy but was also used by German submariners or Kampfschwimmer.

Modern and contemporary British art racked up £195,000 at a Roseberys (23% buyer’s premium) sale, with 80% of the 252 lots sold.

Henry Shaw (1812-87) is a well-known name in the world of antique taxidermy.

This painting of a saint sold for a multi-estimate £5400 at London Auctions (22% buyer’s premium) in Chiswick.

The history of the Kutchinsky jewellery brand dates back to 1893 – the year Hirsch Kutchinsky and son Morris arrived in the East End of London, having fled Poland.

Traditional ‘country house style’ pictures were in plentiful supply at a two-day sale at Tennants of Leyburn.

More glamorous sales will take place this year, but a week of four quality auctions at Lawrences (22% buyer’s premium) of Crewkerne provided some solid reassurance about the state of the middle market.

A selection of jewellery and watch previews from around the salerooms, including the recent discovery of an intriguing coronet at Dix Noonan Webb...

Evidence of the shrewd taste of student entertainments officers at Warwick University back in the Sixties came at Batemans’ (20% buyer’s premium) sale at Stamford in the form of two concert posters.

Deemed a little ostentatious in some Western circles, tiaras remain popular with the so-called ‘new’ markets.

The closing nine lots in Lawrences’ January 18 sale were consigned by a lady in Somerset. They had belonged to her mother and grandmother and had been kept in a safe deposit box in the bank for about the last 30 years.