Furniture

The frame to this Irish mahogany day bed with its bold paw feet and eagle uprights bears both the Strahan name and number stamp as well as an original paper trade label.

Bought in 1952 by a semi-pro Skegness musician who played with East Coast seaside entertainers, this steel string guitar got a big show of hands at Louth auction house John Taylors (18% buyer’s premium).

The opening 320-plus lots of Thomaston Place Auction Galleries’ next sale, Autumn Majestic, from November 12-14 in Maine, comprise the works from the estate of New York advertising photographer Frank Cowan (1934-2003).

Christopher Dresser (1834-1904) designed two electroplated claret or water jugs for Elkington & Co of Birmingham in 1885 – both of them daring designs inspired by vessels from antiquity.

Given that most antique furniture at auction tends to be good value only for the buyer these days, one can perhaps understand why it occasionally does not always receive the attention it once merited from auctioneers and valuers. As a result, occasionally a special item slips through.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

It was not to high-end purist tastes, but ballet pioneer’s collection reeled in eager bidders

A “vanishingly rare” oil by Barnett Freedman (1901-58) showing a newly liberated Normandy town shortly after D-Day is among the star exhibits at the Winter Art & Antiques Fair at Olympia in London.

The original ‘Poohsticks’ bridge from AA Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh books is to return to the ‘Hundred Acre Wood’ after it was bought by Buckhurst Park estate owner Lord De La Warr.

An ensemble of furnishings by the French designer/decorator Eugène Printz (1879- 1948) that were created in the 1930s for a villa in Casablanca, Morocco, will feature at Briscadieu Bordeaux in the French city on November 6.

A Maori hei-tiki pendant offered in Cheltenham on September 16 had an old paper label verso stating that it originally belonged to Makoare Te Taonui.

It was in the wake of the Great Fire of London in 1666 that the first societies were created to protect against the losses caused by fire.

Rowland Leach runs interior design and antique business French Loft with his wife Mary, specialising in 17th and 18th century French and English country furniture.

Anita Morgan, co-owner of The Hive in Cambridge, is an antique tile specialist and stands at the small annual niche tile fair in Nottingham organised by the Tiles & Architectural Ceramics Society (TACS), which was held this year on October 2.

Grand venues can work wonders for fair organisers helping to get punters through the door while providing an ideal backdrop for dealers to showcase their stock.

Although not catalogued as such, this occasional table offered at auction is made to a well-known Aesthetic movement design by EW Godwin.

Irish castle home of earls about to be turned into hotel and spa furnishes a remarkable sale

This mahogany inlaid bijouterie oval table by Victorian maker Edwards & Roberts is part of a large selection of antiques making their way to Cheshire this month.