Essex

Aston Martins are associated with glamour and glitz. The car of James Bond. But the example coming up in a classic car auction in Essex on May 7 is more muck than mystique.

A suspected antiques scammer faced court accused of taking antiques worth more than £650,000 from elderly people.

A rare and recently rediscovered Irish Commonwealth/Charles II silver porringer sold today for £25,000 – five times its estimate – at Sworders’ auction in Essex.

Boningtons have sold a rare Queen Anne 'Vigo' gold coin for £225,000. One of Britain's rarest coins, it was knocked down to a buyer in the room and set a house record for the Essex auctioneers.

Only a handful of pieces of Irish secular silver are known to survive from before the Restoration.

A rare example of a Queen Anne 'Vigo' five-guinea gold coin has emerged at Essex auctioneers Boningtons. It will be offered at their sale in Epping on November 16 with an estimate of £200,000-250,000.

When in the middle of the century Suffolk collector Hugh Marsham Townshend (1878-1967) was amassing a collection of gold-mounted porcelain scent bottles and other trinkets, most were thought to be the products of the Chelsea porcelain works or a shadowy enterprise known as the ‘Girl in a Swing’ factory.

Among the works sold over estimate at today’s silver and jewellery auction at Sworders in Stansted Mountfitchet was a rare silver-gilt three-piece teaset that tripled expectations when it was knocked down at £4100.

Boningtons Auctioneers will become the first regional auction house to offer original works by Winston Churchill at a sale in July.

A watercolour by Eric Ravilious (1903-1942) drew serious bidding at Sworders this week, overtaking a £40,000-60,000 estimate before it was knocked down at £85,000.

An Eric Ravilious (1903-42) watercolour has emerged at Sworders of Essex and will be among the star lots at their first dedicated Modern British Art sale next month.

Paul César Helleu (1859-1927) is best known for his Belle Epoque portraits of beautiful society women.

A growing market for silver from the sub-continent culminated in a bid of £11,500 for this 9in (23cm) early 20th century Burmese bowl by Maung Yin Maung of Rangoon.

This spectacular barn find, an ebonised coromandel and inlaid octagonal centre table designed by Edward Godwin (1833-86), sold for £31,000 at Sworders’ sale of decorative art and design in Stansted Mountfitchet.