Wotton Auction Rooms

'Cattle Market, Braintree' from 1937 is a trademark Edward Bawden image. But it is also the artist’s only pre-war editioned print.

Does the Contemporary art auction market need levelling up?

Modern British sculptures were the main attraction at Wotton Auction Rooms’ (18% buyer’s premium) recent sale at Stouts Hill Manor.

John Rolfe from Wotton Auction Rooms had been asked to undertake a valuation for probate in a bungalow near Salisbury when he made an intriguing discovery.

A recent sale at Wotton Auction Rooms (21.6% buyer’s premium) in Wotton-Under-Edge included this set of three yellow metal fobs set with carnelian intaglios.

Found in the garden room of a local property among a stack of other pictures, this unsigned oil on canvas had a distinct resemblance to portraits by Allan Ramsay (1713-84).

Estimated at just £30-50, a late 19th century sampler sold via thesaleroom.com for £1850 at Wotton Auction Rooms (18% buyer’s premium) in Gloucestershire. A clue to the appeal is the inscription 'M Mountain, 5 Orphan House, Ashley Down, Bristol, 1879'.

Battered and dust-engrained when found in a basement during a Lake District house clearance, an early unsigned brass lantern clock generated great excitement at Penrith Farmers’ & Kidd’s (18% buyer’s premium).

The traditionally ‘dead’ period between Christmas and New Year was enlivened by the December 28 sale at Wotton Auction Rooms (17.5% buyer’s premium) in Gloucestershire – to the extent that more than 20,000 people suffering withdrawal symptoms worldwide viewed it online and 1360 of them registered to bid.

Portraits of prize-winning racing pigeons are the latest must-haves in decorative collecting circles, judging by a recent spate of high prices in the regions.

A fine pair of Victorian figural table salts in the form of sea maidens on the back of dolphins sold for £4900 (estimate £1500-2000) at Wootton Auction Rooms in Gloucestershire on October 17. Weighing 33oz, they carry marks for John Wilmin Figg, London 1841.

The appeal of this 16in (40.5cm) tall French silvered bronze of a ballerina offered at Wotton Auction Rooms (21% buyer’s premium) on May 23, undoubtedly owed much of its success to its provenance.