UK

The eye-watering sums that footballer Neymar is set to earn as part of his £200m record transfer from Barcelona to Paris St Germain are put into perspective by another contract from a different era (in so many senses).

Dating from the early to mid-18th century, the large, roughly 16 x 14in wood engraving called ‘Shone-Ap-Morgan, Shentleman of Wales’ seen below is an exceptionally rare broadside that was sold for £1200 in a Dominic Winter auction this summer.

Sotheby’s revenues for the second quarter of 2017 rose 5% but its profit fell 14% to $76.9m due to a rise in expenses and a decline at its financial services arm.

First time buyers can find shopping for art an intimidating experience. Whether put off by high prices or intimidated by the rarefied air of commercial galleries, new collectors can find the initial step the most difficult.

Modern British art specialist Pallant House Gallery hopes to raise the final thousands of pounds needed to keep Christopher Wood’s ‘China Dogs in a St Ives Window’ (1926) in its Chichester gallery.

When 22-carat golden eggs made by the Queen’s jeweller became available to the public for free back in 1983 it inevitably caused a stir. There was a snag, however. A big snag.

An antiques and art dealer is asking the trade to be aware of a scam after a painting was fraudulently purchased from the gallery in Wiltshire.

Poor old Newark. A bit like Belgium and Poland over the centuries, in the English Civil War the English Midlands town ended up in the wrong place in wartime – stuck in the middle - as armies trampled back and forth across it or lay siege. The town’s misfortune is a coin collector’s gain, however, as the lozenge-shaped coins minted in Newark during the conflict have become familiar and fairly common visitors to the salerooms.

Martians land in Surrey and terrorise much of southern England in tripedal war-machines equipped with death-rays before finally succumbing to terrestrial bacteria. That, put very simply, is the story line of HG Wells’ 1898 novel, ‘The War of the Worlds’, an apocalyptic vision that retains an iconic place in the realms of science fiction.

A family-run dealership has opened a new premises in Lincolnshire.

A masonic ceremonial sword which disappeared in a car theft has been recovered after emerging at a London auction house.

When London’s Tottenham Court Road Underground station started its £400m refurb, one of the trickiest tasks was not the tracks, the signals, ticket office or any of the usual suspects. Instead, it was tackling 950 square metres of mosaics designed by one of the most celebrated of 20th century British artists.

Demand for Beatles memorabilia is always high, so for rarities in this collecting field the prices will naturally be hefty.

St James’s textile specialist S Franses has won an appeal in court for the right to stay in its gallery in central London.

A collection of poetry to be sold at Tennants Auctioneers in Yorkshire includes some of the early works of Hobbit author JRR Tolkien.

The English and Continental ceramics specialists Stockspring Antiques has decided to make a change in direction.

The Bruton Museum in Somerset has bought a rare silver tankard at nearby saleroom Lawrences of Crewkerne.

A photographic portrait of Charles Darwin by Julia Margaret Cameron was among the lots drawing strong competition at Sotheby’s sale of works from one of the largest private collections of material relating to the great naturalist ever formed.