East Midlands

This copper alloy and champleve enamel brooch would once have graced the chariot of an Iron Age chieftain.

West Country-based fair organiser Cooper Events is targeting a late spring return following the government announcement that hospitality venues would be permitted to reopen indoors as part of ‘stage three’ of its timetable for easing Covid-19 restrictions in England.

Until its sale last year, Newbold Pacey Hall had been the seat of the Little family since the house was built by William Little in c.1780-90.

A row has erupted over the circumstances surrounding the auction of a collection of Modern British art in Derbyshire in December.

Influential Moses Harris work had made no appearance in auction records and sparked vibrant bidding at Hansons.

Theodolite and telescope made to high standards measure up in two salerooms

This Volvo PV 444 diecast toy is by the Swedish toy distributor Gösta Norén.

Golding Young & Mawer is to offer the untouched collection of a Warwickshire country house at the end of the month.

Tom Parry runs Chester’s Farm Antiques in Nottinghamshire and specialises in decorative arts, including ceramics, jewellery and silver.

A recent fine art auction at Hansons (25% buyer’s premium) included a once magnificent Qianlong (1735-99) copper-red and underglaze blue lantern vase.

The unusual Chinese porcelain model (pictured below) forms the shape of a lingzhi stem vividly enamelled with a blend of green, blue and pink glazes. It measures 9in (23cm) high and carries a Qianlong (1736-95) mark.

An item of local interest to bidders at Bamfords in Derby was this 18th century account book for Radbourne Hall, the seat of the Chandos-Pole family.

A George III gold pair cased pocket watch gave a strong start to the Golding Young & Mawer (20% buyer’s premium) November 4 sale (brought forward a day to avoid lockdown restrictions).

An 1859 first of Darwin’s seminal work shrugs off condition issues to be a best-seller

In family ownership for several generations, this 27oz Charles II sugar box was described by Nottingham auction house Mellors & Kirk (24% buyer’s premium) as “in an exceptional state of preservation, with hardly any sign of wear and no damage or repair worthy of note”.

The invention of the gauger’s slide rule in the 1680s is generally credited to one Thomas Everard of Southampton.