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ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period December 19-January 2, 2019. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

While five-figure sums for top-end 20th century design furniture are familiar in the international centres of New York, Paris and London, fewer pieces appear in the UK regional market.

Painted as a birthday gift, a portrait of one of the more popular characters in the annals of American children’s literature, Eloise, sold for $80,000 (£62,675) at Bonhams New York (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) on December 5.

Since the early 1990s Wolfgang Thillmann, a German and philosophy teacher, has devoted himself to collecting Thonet bentwood furniture and become an internationally acknowledged expert in the process.

Arnold Pash (1928-2018), veteran silver dealer of A Pash & Son, passed away peacefully on December 6, 2018, at home surrounded by his family after battling cancer and ill health.

Testament to a vibrant market for vintage Tudor wristwatches, a very scarce Oysterdate – the reference 7031 or ‘Homeplate’ – proved the star of Hansons’ Christmas auction at Bishton Hall, Staffordshire.

On Friday, January 4, Michael Bloomstein of Brighton were paying the following for bulk scrap against a gold fix of $1290.35 / €1124.58 / £1016.80.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from January 8-31, 2019.

This Chinese export porcelain punch bowl will feature in a large two-day sale of more than 750 lots of Americana and international interest at Pook & Pook in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, on January 11-12.

A round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days, including former Thomas Watson Auctioneers director David Elstob launching a new business in North Yorkshire.

A rare 11th century Portolan chart on vellum will be offered by the Il Ponte auction house in a sale of books and manuscripts in Milan on January 22.

Four works sold in Essex auction could be part of Marks’ Eaton Hall commission.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

Works by major names in modern art are available in north London this month. The annual London Art Fair might have a contemporary focus, with many of the attending dealerships and surrounding projects concentrating on recent works, but a healthy supply of older 20th century art for buyers is available to snap up from established galleries.

Did the final days of 2018 provide the year’s greatest discovery? Bidders who pursued a bronze dragon head from €20,000 to €2.4m (£2.2m) at the Drouot in Paris on December 17 certainly thought so.

Brexit uncertainty. Tick. A weak pound. Tick. The ivory ban. Tick. Some of the themes that will permeate 2019 are already clear. But what else might the next 12 months bring for the art and antiques trade and its buying audience? ATG does a little crystal-ball gazing...

“Every specialist has an object that they dream of having in their sales,” says Matthew Rubinger, Christie’s head of handbags and accessories. “For me, it’s the aluminium Explorer trunk by Louis Vuitton. The market is full of silver-coloured metal trunks, but this piece is their inspiration.”

A new auction record for the idiosyncratic stonewares of the Martin brothers was established at Phillips’ Design sale in New York.

Estimated at £40-60, this unusual Chinese scholar’s object took £32,000 (plus buyer’s premium) at a recent auction at Rogers Jones in Cardiff.