Pick of the Week

Models produced for promotional purposes usually benefit from considerable rarity value and so it proved when a Dinky toy came up for auction at Stockton-on-Tees saleroom Vectis.

This monumental and documentary Staffordshire blue and white transfer printed jug sold for $4800 (£4000) as part of Bonhams Skinner’s sale of British pottery and porcelain that ran online from Marlborough, Massachusetts, in the last days of 2022.

Although Dutchmen John and David Elers came to London sometime in the 1680s as silversmiths, the brothers are remembered today as the potters who brought fine unglazed stonewares to Staffordshire.

Since its first publication in 1908, Kenneth Grahame’s 'The Wind in the Willows' has appeared in various editions and reprints illustrated by nearly 50 artists.

When Hartleys’ valuer Daisy Hodgson was rummaging through an old biscuit tin in a family home in north London she spotted something that she thought might have great potential.

It was, said the catalogue, “a once in a lifetime opportunity to acquire a top end sign in such remarkable condition”.

A ‘Russian’ tunic from Chanel’s famed Spring 1922 collection sold for €100,000 (£86,000) in Paris – a record for her early work.

An elaborate 17th century burr walnut coffre-fort (or strongbox) has been sold by Alexander George Antiques.

This pair of trousers, sold for £7500 in Essex on November 9, was thought to have been worn by the 17th century court dwarf Sir Jeffrey Hudson (1619-82).

Militaria related to the SAS has never been short of eager collectors wanting to splash out for items connected with the British special forces unit.

In colonial Mexico cacao beans and vanilla pods assumed a similar status to tea leaves in England.

Depictions of north Africa and the Middle East became commonplace in Western art as the Orientalist art movement reached its height in the 19th century.

HMS Foudroyant, which served as Nelson’s flagship in the Mediterranean Squadron, had been touring English seaside resorts as an attraction when it was wrecked off Blackpool Sands on June 16, 1897.

The first civilian Victoria Cross of just five to be awarded has sold for an auction record hammer price of £750,000 at London saleroom Noonans.

Florentine pietra dura animal panels from home of art dealer Sir Jack Mervyn Frank Baer take six-figure sum.

This ‘St George and the Dragon’ Pilkington’s Royal Lancastrian plaster panel came for sale at Gildings in Market Harborough by descent from Abraham Lomax.

A lot offering Action Man outfits and accessories from the flock hair period c.1970 sold for 100 times the low estimate at a Devon saleroom thanks to a considerable rarity it contained.

A two-volume manuscript used to determine swan ownership in East Anglia from the 16th to the 19th century was sold by Sworders for a remarkable £54,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium).

A previously unknown sketchbook of watercolours and drawings relating to the California Gold Rush took £16,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) at Chiswick Auctions.

A recent sale at Aldridges of Bath (20% buyer’s premium) included a fine George IV period mahogany extending dining table.