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Holker Hall, the privately owned country house in Cumbria, hosts its first fair in nearly 25 years this month.

“We were particularly encouraged by the performance of the furniture with many pieces selling to trade and private buyers for ‘old school’ prices.”

The 20th century portraitist Meredith Frampton (1894-1984) achieved remarkable success in a relatively short career.

An album of Indian photographs sold for £32,000 in Edinburgh provided ATG’s Pick of the Week in the previous issue (No 2331), but there was much more on offer in that 550-lot Scottish sale.

Running to some 300pp and described by the auctioneers as “a most enchanting album, redolent of Jane Austen and her world”, a scrapbook compilation of paper cut-outs, views and figural studies, sold for £1550 in a general sale held in Sussex.

A Parisian Book of Hours dating to c.1440-50 was among illuminated or decorated manuscripts sold during in the closing weeks of 2017.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

MADAM – As a jewellery consultant I thought my first letter to the ATG would be about ivory. But No.

Commonly known as a What The Butler Saw machine, a late 19th-early 20th century Mutoscope was the most alluring of a consignment of a collection of amusement arcade machines offered at Canterbury Auction Galleries (20% buyer’s premium).

As well as the ‘big three’, a clutch of other US salerooms will be holding specialist Asian art sales in mid March.

MADAM – I think the increased interest and associated rise in value of vintage and collectable watches means auction houses really need to up their game both in terms of what they’re selling and how they are describing lots.

MADAM – Re: the article by Laura Chesters concerning the future of the Silver Vaults (ATG No 2330). Just to correct a small point – that the Chancery Lane Safe Deposit was opened by the Lord Mayor in May 1885 and not in 1876.

Regional auction houses accounted for over a quarter of the UK auction market in 2017.

German-made painted wood Noah’s arks, appealing to folk art and toy collectors alike, don’t get much better than the mid- 19th century example sold at Bonhams Knightsbridge.

Furnishings that were once part of the family home of Gertrude Bell, one of the most fascinating figures of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, are coming up at auction at Tennants in North Yorkshire on March 17.

Whether it’s an object saved for years or an item secured only yesterday, TEFAF will boast a wide range for sale.

Pretty, petite and French – a seductive combination which won admirers of this kingwood and floral marquetry escritoire at Mallams’ (20% buyer’s premium) Oxford rooms.

When it comes to the business of selling middle-market collections, the big London salerooms are particularly adept at cherry-picking the best and rejecting the rest.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

Over a period of four decades, from the 1930s-‘60s, the Italian artist Marino Marini (1901-80) returned again and again to the subject of horse and rider.