Pick of the Week

A work thought to be one of Thomas Gainsborough’s (1727-88) earliest attempts at oil painting as well as his earliest-known self-portrait was one of a number of lots drawing considerable attention at Cheffins.

The mouthwatering kitchenalia collection of Annie Marchant (1951-2020) certainly served up a treat when it came to auction on April 12-13.

This copy of the Uffizi’s Medici Apollo (Apollino) is signed for the Italian sculptor Bartolomeo Cavaceppi (c.1716-99).

Having postponed the sale in November and again in January, Chorley’s finally got to sell an exceptional private collection of early English porcelain in Prinknash Abbey, Gloucestershire, on March 24.

Archaic Chinese bronzes were the stand out lots in Asian Art Week in New York this month.

The highlight of a £75,000, 30-lot private collection of Robert Thompson oak carvings sold by Tennants was an anthropomorphic figure of The Mouseman of Kilburn.

This copper alloy and champleve enamel brooch would once have graced the chariot of an Iron Age chieftain.

Bidders were out in force at a recent sale in North Carolina for a collection of 136 lots consigned from the estate of the late Robert K Johnson, a finance and telecommunications executive.

The handwritten journal of Colonel Christopher Rigby, recording his success in securing freedom for thousands of slaves in east Africa, was the highlight of a collection of his papers sold in London.

In his book 'Oriental Rugs' (1998), textiles scholar Murray Eiland Jr lamented the challenges in dating and identifying carpets woven in south-east India.

A nude study by Dame Laura Knight (1877-1970) found plenty of admirers when it appeared at the latest fine art sale held by Penzance saleroom David Lay (18% buyer’s premium).

Tureens in the form of geese, cockerel, carp, ox head, boar’s head and other animals were an integral part of the grand display in an 18th century European dining room.

Some of the most eagerly contested lots in the Aynhoe Park: The Celebration of a Modern Grand Tour sale held by Dreweatts in Oxfordshire on January 20-21 were those created by the owner of the property himself.

The luxury perfumery l’Officina Profuma Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella in Florence is considered the oldest pharmacy in the world.

A copy of the Royal Doulton dinner service commissioned in 1922 for Queen Mary’s doll’s house sold for a top-estimate £30,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) as part of the Thomas Goode auction at Sotheby’s.

This 12½in (32cm) Vincennes circular dish or plat d’entremets from the first Louis XV service sold for £95,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) at Woolley & Wallis.

The Anschluss of 1938 between Nazi Germany and Austria had a devastating effect on Vienna’s Jewish population.

This 14in (36cm) diameter ‘double lustre’ shallow dish or charger by William De Morgan (1839-1917) is decorated in the so-called ‘Frightened Bird’ pattern.

The artist, cleric, schoolmaster and author William Gilpin (1724-1804) is best known as a champion of the Romantic idea of the picturesque.

In 1592, the Florentine stone carver Cosimo Castrucci (fl.1576-1602) was called to the imperial court in Prague by Rudolph II.