East of England

Catalogued as a ‘travelling ensemble’ these two oak fitted cases of silver tableware, below, conjure up images of lavish inter-war era picnics.

A portrait of Thomas Cobley Gent of Buttsford, Colebrooke (d.1844), is believed to portray ‘Old Uncle Tom Cobley’, from the tradition song Widecombe Fair, as a young boy.

Following the wake of the influential 1862 International Exhibition in London (when Japanese art first reached a wide British audience), this tea service below would have been the height of fashion when it was made by Richard Martin and Ebenezer Hall in 1879.

Strong bidding for the best Republic period porcelain has become a familiar sight at Asian art sales. Less often observed is the newer enthusiasm for artist-decorated wares from the early years of the People’s Republic.

A marine scene by Alfred Priest (1810-50) is among the highlights at English and Continental Antiques’ final exhibition of the year.

The Fine Jewellery and Watches auction at Sworders of Stansted Mountfitchet on November 20 will include this Cartier Art Deco rose-cut diamond, black and white enamel and seed pearl-set pendant watch, c.1915.

Little Vintage Lover Fairs, aka Zoe Durrant, runs events at venues across Norfolk including the privately owned village of Heydon, near Norwich.

A handful of copies of Robert Morden’s 'Geography Rectified, or a Description of the World' have made a little more at auction than a 1680 copy offered in a Stacey’s (24% buyer’s premium) sale of September 10 – but all bar one of them were second or third editions of 1688 and 1693.

Two secular icons of pre- and post-Revolutionary Russia provided the highlights at Lockdales (18% buyer’ s premium) of Ipswich.

The appearance of the 19th century Meissen figure based on Kaendler’s original Count Bruhl’s Tailor begins to bring to mind Monty Python’s Green Knight as he rides undaunted into UK auctions despite his increasingly battered state.

The Horlicks collection of Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson furniture was sold at Sworders’ auction for £236,000.

View of a Garden by Thomas Churchyard of Woodbridge (1798-1865) is offered for £1400 in the exhibition Artist on the Deben, which features 19th century Suffolk artists.

Despite the fact that smoking cigarettes has been ostracised, the rise in interest for vintage smoking paraphernalia has increased.

Fair organising runs in the family for Gary Sheridan and his daughter Emma.

A portrait of a young Stuart woman, below, attributed to the Hungarian painter Johannes Priwitzer (fl.1626-35), topped the picture section in a two-day sale at Cheffins (22.5% buyer’s premium) of Cambridge.

Before finally achieving success in 1945 with The Pursuit of Love and then with Love in a Cold Climate, Nancy Mitford had published three novels. Two of these made record sums in a recent Stansted sale.