My favourite paintinglady violet manners

The piece I’d never part with

The Rothschild name is famous throughout Europe: a family renowned for banking, vast fortunes, sumptuous houses and philanthropic acts. Recently, Britain lost Rothschild legend, Jacob, 4th Baron Roths

Brown Jack not only won six consecutive times in Ascot’s Queen Alexandra Stakes, but was also the model for one of only two finished sculptures by Sir Alfred Munnings. A cast of it made top price at auction–as did a Canaletto at another sale

A cut-crystal bed, with associated mirrors and throne, sparkled at auction earlier this month, but no glamour could beat the prize that was the Union Flag flown by HMS Spartiate at the Battle of Trafalgar

The mischievous cultural commentator and diarist who changed the way museums think about the past

Avoiding the curse of the figurative