Auctions

In market terms, ecclesiastical gates are not the subject of mass appeal but examples by major 19th century designers certainly had their devotees at two June sales.

Christie’s marathon 12-hour auction of Indian jewellery and works of art from the Al Thani family held in New York included the finest collection of courtly weapons to come to auction in well over a generation.

Catalogued as a ‘tin glazed hand painted Chinese vase – 17in (42cm) tall’ and estimated at £50-80, a late 17th century Kangxi period famille verte porcelain vase of waisted trumpet form sold on June 22 for a healthier £12,000 – 150 times the top estimate.

This silver tennis bangle, below, triggered a classic singles match at auction.

Published in Venice in November 1494, a copy of Luca Pacioli’s 'Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proporzioni et proporzionalità…' offered in a recent US sale was granted the rare privilege in the book auction world of having a catalogue all of its own.

Scantily catalogued as a Georgian/Victorian micro-mosaic plaque depicting a dove, a classic example of the pieces produced by Italian craftsmen and beloved by wealthy Britons on the Grand Tour was equally appreciated by bidders at Stroud Auctions (18% buyer’s premium).

Beyond the Horizon was the title given to the remarkable Mopelia collection of atlases and travel books offered in a June 5 sale in London.

Top-seller at Richard Edmonds’ (20% buyer’s premium) latest specialist motoring accessories sale was a hanging lightbox proclaiming the virtues of Pratt’s Perfection Spirit.

Running up a total of over €2m on 600 lots, a smaller number than usual, the May 27 sale held by Ketterer Kunst (23/21% buyer’s premium) in Hamburg produced the book department’s best-ever results.

Cologne auction house Lempertz (24% buyer’s premium) held a recent sale devoted to the Schwarzach Collection of mortars, which is thought to be the most extensive of its type in Europe, if not worldwide.

A rare signed ink and gouache image in which Tintin carves a makeshift propellor to replace that damaged by a forced landing of his aeroplane in the Soviet Union sold for $900,000 (£708,660) in a June 8-9 sale of European comic artworks held in the US.

Views of Venice figure prominently in a collection of 42 Old Master drawings from the 18th century, being sold by Metz in Heidelberg on July 20.

Our listing of British and Irish book auctions taking place from July 2-13.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

From the 18th century onwards, the city of Birmingham was a major centre of the British gun-making industry.

Numerous tribes inhabit the Cross River state of south-eastern Nigeria, close to the border with Cameroon. Animals of many kinds play a major part in the myths and religions of the area.

No good library of British art pottery literature is complete without a copy of Paul Atterbury’s 'Moorcroft'. The jacket illustration alone with its myriad tube-lined miniatures in a bewildering range of forms and patterns is particularly memorable. More than one collector has attempted to emulate the beguiling display.

Percy Kelly (1918-93) was so averse to the limelight that only a few of his paintings were ever shown publicly during his life. But a major retrospective in 2015 and a birth centenary last year has helped raise the Cumbrian artist’s profile – and his prices.

Tentatively guided at £200-400, this watercolour of an unknown sitter below attributed to the painter and sculptor Glyn Philpot (1884-1937) attracted multiple bids in Cardiff.

Morphy Auctions’ latest Fine & Decorative Arts sale held in Denver, Pennsylvania included this unusual 7½in (19cm) Russian silver-mounted pottery vase.