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Although catalogued as Sèvres, a porcelain cup and saucer sold by Keys (20% buyer’s premium) of Aylsham for an unexpected £5500 (estimate £100-200) on November 27 was by the factory’s precursor at Vincennes. The saucer had the date letter A for c.1754 and the cup B for c.1755.

The 11 pieces of early-18th century Régence silver gilt from a dressing service pictured below were billed by Christie’s as “the last remnants of France’s most glorified stylistic and historically important period”.

This group of late-19th century Chinese export bowls and saucers was made for the Middle Eastern market – specifically for the Qajar prince Mas’ud Mirza Zill al-Sultan (1850-1918).

Cotswolds steel masterworks bring £50,000.

The sale at John Nicholson’s (25% buyer’s premium) in Haslemere on October 24 included a substantial collection of ancient (or ancient style) coloured glassware: more than 60 pieces sold across half a dozen group lots.

Two lots of Japanese cloisonné – both by top-drawer Meiji workshops – merited sums way over estimate at a sale conducted by Thomas R Callan (20% buyer’s premium) in Ayr on November 30.

A ‘prominent’ northern English family consigned a seascape by the Dutch Golden Age painter Jacob van Ruisdael (1628-82) to Anderson & Garland (22% buyer’s premium).

Preview held in imposing stately home helps to boost interest ahead of first sale section.

Comics and comic artwork selling at a very high level were evident in a three-day sale held recently in Dallas.

An international buyer paid £34,000 for a 15th century Netherlandish School oil on panel of the Virgin and St Elizabeth which was last on the market in 1955.

A pair of engravings after Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c.1525-69) sold for more than six-times estimate at auction in Essex.

Two mixed lots of Victorian dust-pressed tiles sold for multi-estimate sums at Mander (24% buyer’s premium inc VAT) in Sudbury on November 30. Key to their appeal were the inclusion of near sets of tiles made by Minton Hollins & Co to designs by Arts & Crafts luminaries.

Bidders respond positively to auction combination of quality, freshness and pricing.

Darwin and Newton impress in US auction while Adam Smith brings wealthy sums.

Online buying: realised prices at auctions on thesaleroom.com

The sale at flood-hit Bamfords (21% buyer’s premium) on October 30 included chattels from the estate of Lady Elizabeth Georgiana Alice Cavendish (1926-2018), daughter of the 10th Duke of Devonshire of nearby Chatsworth House.

Musical manuscript and portrait on song in salerooms.