Auctions

Selling the contents of historic estates, especially those in the same family for several generations, will often throw up surprises.

A mammoth skeleton, carved zitan brushpot and gold watch made in London are among the varied lots on offer in upcoming French sales.

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period November 23-29 2017. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

A philosopher of mathematics, the human consciousness and language, Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) was described by his teacher Bertrand Russell as “the most perfect example I have ever known of genius as traditionally conceived”.

In a category of its own – and bringing one of the highest prices at the Tennants autumn sale – was a brass, tooth-edge dog collar engraved Rt. Honble Lord Byron.

Described as the ‘Proustian Holy Grail’ by Sotheby’s Paris (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium), one of just five special copies printed on Japanese paper of Marcel Proust’s Du côté de chez Swann sold for a premium-inclusive €535,000 (£471,780) in a sale of October 30.

Shapes Auctioneers based in Edinburgh is to close.

Two examples of the 19th century European craftsmen’s love of mother of pearl shone at Hannam’s (20% buyer’s premium) sale at Selborne on November 15.

For a relatively brief period during the 19th century, small silver boxes decorated with British landmarks found an eager following among the honeymooners and day-trippers of Georgian and Victorian England.

An Old Master portrait of an elderly Stuart woman took £13,200 at Mander Auctioneers (17.5% buyer’s premium) in Suffolk on November 18.

Two big names dominated the 20th Century Decorative Arts sale held by Gildings (15% buyer’s premium) in Market Harborough on November 7.

An exceptionally rare, complete copy in a 17th century binding of Hernán Cortés’ Praeclara Nova maris Oceanii Hyspania… of 1524 sold for a six-times estimate €240,000 (£212,390) at Hartung & Hartung (20% buyer’s premium) in its November 6-7 auction.

British bee books formed an unusual feature of a November 8 sale held by Dominic Winter (19.5% buyer’s premium).

Topping a recent sale at Boulton & Cooper in Malton, near York was this unusual Georgian miniature elbow chair with shell-carved knees and cresting rail.

George Orwell is the focus of a first look at a November 7 Sotheby’s (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) sale of books from The Library of an English Bibliophile, the seventh in that series to have been held since 2010. Orwell’s books made a significant contribution to the overall total.

Plaudits were deserved in Paris on November 27 for Camille Claudel (1864-1943) when Artcurial’s (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) dedicated sale of 20 of the sculptor’s works were offered direct from her family.

Sometimes described as the wireless which saved Ekco, the radical Bakelite circular Model AD65 radio designed by Wells Coates in the 1933 sold in its tens of thousands. It restored the fortunes of the Essex factory after a disastrous fire in 1932.

A red and black chalk portrait of a Renaissance French prince soared to a multi-estimate price of €810,000 (£736,365) when it went under the hammer in Monaco last month.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships