Auctions

Bonhams has promoted Asaph Hyman to global head of Chinese ceramics and works of art.

Having suffered five wounds and been taken prisoner in the First World War, fortune could have smiled more favourably on Victoria Cross winner Corporal Sidney Day by the time the 1939-45 conflict came around.

A ruby and amethyst set Starfish brooch, one of the signature designs from the French jewellery house René Boivin, was the toast of the jewellery sale held by French auction firm Chayette et Cheval in Paris.

Multi-estimate results greeted the Joyce Paretti collection of perfume bottles sold by John Nicholson’s of Fernhurst in two instalments.

A previously unrecorded teapot attributed to a pioneering American porcelain factory sold at a Woolley & Wallis auction today for £460,000. The vendor of the teapot, a private collector from south-west of England, had bought it recently in the Midlands for just £15.

A saleroom that sold a selection of items related to the Dambusters has moved on about 30 years for its latest aviation lot: a nose cone from Concorde.

What could become the most valuable collection ever auctioned is going on show in London this week.

Among the leading sellers at Batemans’ recent auction was this portrait of a small terrier.

Sotheby’s second annual sale of erotic art last week totalled £3.7m, falling somewhat short of expectations and last year’s results.

It’s a name synonymous with luxury. The Ritz in Paris has been accommodating the rich and famous for 120 years since César Ritz opened the doors of his hotel on the Place Vendôme to the public on June 1, 1898.