BOSTON, MASS. — Skinner’s April 8 sale of European decorative arts included a porphyry head of a Roman emperor, estimated at a mere $2/4,000. It was cataloged as Italian, Eighteenth Century, after the antique. The head was just under 20 inches tall on later socle and pedestal. It sold for $98,400, almost 25 times the estimate.

The sale included 150 lots from the Troy D. Chappell collection of early English pottery, which gave collectors and dealers an opportunity to purchase items that do not often come to the market, along with silver, European furniture, porcelains and paintings.

A full review will follow in an upcoming edition.