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As auction houses expand their specialist sales programmes, separate departments can also develop if the volume of business is worth it. Not many have a dedicated single-owner department, however.

Cirencester auction house Moore Allen & Innocent will offer a cache of uncensored letters written by a prominent First World War officer.

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period November 2-8, 2017. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

Leeds-born artist Julius Caesar Ibbetson (1759-1817) was a self-taught artist who worked during the ‘golden age’ of British watercolour painting. And while, perhaps, his prowess did not always rival that of his leading contemporaries, James Mitchell reflects that at his best, the Yorkshireman’s work is “very pleasing”.

A brief letter of 1864 in which Ulysses S Grant agrees to General William T Sherman’s ‘March to the Sea’, a bold plan to destroy Atlanta, then march across Georgia to Savannah or Charleston during the American Civil War, sold for $100,000 (£75,755) on October 19, at Heritage Auctions (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) in Dallas.

Not many new faces at salerooms can include among their experience “a trained horse whisperer”.

A mid-19th century scrimshaw carved whalebone walking cane sold for a house record of £17,000 (plus 18% buyer’s premium) at East Bristol Auctions on November 9.

Bowman Sculpture holds an exhibition of new works by British artist Emily Young from November 17-January 11.

Earlier works in an October 18 sale held by Cheffins (22.5% buyer’s premium) included a scarce 1688 first of Randle Holme’s The Academy of Armory, or a Storehouse of Armory and Blazon, an heraldic work by the third member of a distinguished Chester family of heraldic painters and genealogists to bear that name. It made £1200.

Events to be held in tandem as IACF drops Surrey venue to focus elsewhere.

In business for 20-plus years, former Sotheby’s auctioneer Catherine Southon, founder of the eponymous auction house and antiques TV presenter, takes nothing for granted.

It’s a new name and a new start for a Jedburgh saleroom this autumn.