AUCTIONS

Back on the block this week James II's exquisitely embroidered wedding suit of 1673, looking none the worse for wear after its flop at Christie's South Kensington three years ago. Then, it was estimated pounds 200,000, but its owners for the past three centuries, the Sausmarez family of Guernsey, stuck on an extra pounds 100,000 at the last moment. Result: the suit stuck, at the pounds 210,000 bid by the V&A. This time, the estimate is back at pounds 200,000.

James wore the suit when, as Duke of York, he married the 14-year-old daughter of the Duke of Modena, signalling his conversion to Catholicism. Who knows, today's vogue for Catholic conversion may yield a devoted buyer.

For bidders with hundreds, rather than hundreds of thousands to spend, the costume and textile sale, Thursday (10.30am) has some fascinating trophies. A pair of Queen Victoria's kid gloves, complete with embroidered royal cipher, is estimated pounds 400-pounds 600, about the same as the going rate for a pair of her knickers. A black bicorne hat "traditionally believed to have belonged to Napoleon Bonaparte" (yawn) is estimated pounds 1,000-pounds 1,500.

Best buys: wonderful Paisley shawls for pounds 400-pounds 600 or so, valuable not only to collectors for their fine weave but to manufacturers and designers for their gorgeous patterns.

If you must dress up, Lawrence of Arabia's ivory silk desert robe could cost you pounds 10,000-pounds 15,000, a 1790 swanky embroidered military tailcoat pounds 200-pounds 300.

Astonishing, little-known images of James Dean by the Magnum photographer Dennis Stock are in the UK's first auction of Stock's work at Bonhams, Wednesday (6pm). Stock captured Dean in his hometown, Fairmount, Indiana, shortly before his death 40 years ago: he is shown on a farm hugging pigs and in conversation with cows. The signed or stamped prints are estimated from pounds 300-pounds 400 upwards. Stock's photographs of other screen celebrities - including Marilyn Monroe - and colour studies of landscapes, animals, fish and plants are also for sale. Viewing times, unusually, include Saturday (4.30pm).

A tiny, 3in high dolls' teapot of about 1710 is expected to fetch pounds 20,000, to become the world's most expensive teapot, at Bonhams, Wednesday (11am). Its maker, the German Johann Friedrich Bottger, would be amused to hear that it is worth more than its weight in gold - he was an alchemist. His strange concoctions led to his discovery of Europe's first true porcelain - Meissen.

John Windsor