Auctions

A newly-discovered drawing that has been attributed to Leonardo da Vinci will be offered by Paris auctioneers Tajan next year, estimated at €15m (£9.62m).

Medals specialist David Erskine-Hill has left Dix Noonan Webb to rejoin former employer Spink.

The withdrawal of two key works dented the overall total at Christie’s evening sale of Old Masters last night. However, some spirited bidding did emerge on a number of lots which helped lift proceedings.

A preparatory sketch by John Constable was knocked down for £720,000 at Bonhams earlier today.

This stoneware vase designed by Henry Van De Velde for Reinhold Hanke was sold at Mallams in Oxford earlier today for £17,000.

Sotheby’s Old Master evening sale in London last night was somewhat short of stellar works but the auction registered a decent performance for the material on offer.

Christie’s contemporary art chief Brett Gorvy is leaving the firm to become an art advisor.

An imposing brass alloy figure of Canda Vajrapani set an auction record for a Tibetan sculpture when it was knocked down at HK$42.5m (£4.34m) at Bonhams Hong Kong.

Christie’s is officially turning 250 years old today.

Sotheby’s has bought scientific research specialist Orion Analytical to "help to make the art market a safer place".

Some good old-fashioned saleroom drama ensued at Ewbank’s of Send in Surrey on December 1 when a tribal art necklace estimated at £60-100 sold to a buyer from Continental Europe at £99,000 (plus 22.5% premium).

Arts & Crafts furniture from the collection of a former boss of brewing giant Mitchell & Butler will be offered at The Cotswold Auction Company this month.

Theodore Johns aims to introduce younger collectors and Caravaggio enthusiasts to a group of more affordable works with an exhibition of paintings inspired by the Old Master.

An archive of family drawings by Sir William Rothenstein (1872-1945) forms part of Mallams’ December 8 sale in Oxford.

Rarely seen photographs of the wedding that caused a constitutional crisis and rocked the British monarchy have been sold at £9200.

One of the most famous firearms in French literary history has sold for €360,000 (£305,605) at Christie’s in Paris.

A pink silk jacket once worn by Queen Victoria was among the lots that led Ewbank’s recent textile auction to almost double its pre-sale expectations.

This French porcelain hot water jug, or ‘pot à eau’ was made at the Vincennes factory in 1754, probably for the Dauphine Maria Josepha. The mother of King Louis XVI, who was guillotined during the French Revolution, she was an important patron of Vincennes.

It might not be a Bag for Life but this plastic bag has set a collector back £240.

A rare and recently rediscovered Irish Commonwealth/Charles II silver porringer sold today for £25,000 – five times its estimate – at Sworders’ auction in Essex.