Check the fine print

Hokusai imagined a massive breaker about to crash on tiny fishing boats. Sandro Botticelli had his Venus float in her shell on a mere sea ripple. Large or small, soothing or frightening, waves have long captivated artists, finds Michael Prodger

The Yellow Boy by Joshua Reynolds saw multiple peregrinations, passing even through (Romanian) royal hands for a time, before returning to London in 1981. It now headlines a selling exhibition of magnificent 18th to 20th-century works

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

Estimate £15,000-£20,000 Sold £32,000+BP An evocative, delicate watercolour, The North Wind, came from the brush of free spirit Emily Brontë, author of Wuthering Heights and one-third of the world-fam

Rufus Bird considers whether the market is up or down

Canny collectors should swoop in when an artist falls out of fashion–but always pay attention to quality, because even the greatest names, such as Picasso, made the odd pot-boiler