Norfolk

Provenance can count for a lot when it comes to gun collecting and two names with quite different connotations came up at Holts (25/20% buyer’s premium).

The random selection of a place in the line is one of the long-established rituals of English driven game shooting and novel methods continue to emerge.

A summer boom sent property prices soaring by up to 20% in some rural areas of Norfolk as buyers moved out of commuter-land to what is described in estate agent-speak as ‘lifestyle-sustainable’. We talk to four antiques business in the county.

Bid to a record £1900 in a Norfolk auction was a 1905, two-volume first of 'My Life: A Record of Events and Opinions'.

Bid online to a record £3200 in a Norfolk auction was one of 375 copies of a 1924 Nonesuch Press work comprising the first chapter of Genesis…, as illustrated with a dozen woodcuts by Paul Nash.

James Dodds (b.1957) has been described as both ‘East Anglia’s most famous Contemporary artist after Dame Maggi Hambling’ and as ‘boatbuilding’s artist laureate’.

At TW Gaze (18% buyer’s premium) in Diss, Norfolk, on August 12 this early 20th century Louis Vuitton wardrobe trunk, no 796731, sold for £4200 against an estimate of £1800-2500.

The white ‘rooks’ to this 19th century carved and turned wood chess set, offered by TW Gaze (18% buyer’s premium) in Diss in August 12, are stamped Calvert 189 Fleet Street to their bases.

Jane Austen was among the names to note in a recent Norfolk sale, with the day’s top bid securing a four-volume, 1818 first of Northanger Abbey & Persuasion.

A group of works on paper generated decent action at Keys’ (20% buyer’s premium) online-only sale of 20th Century design and modern art this summer.

Published in 1970, 'William the Lawless' marked the last appearance in full book form of Richmal Crompton’s much-loved schoolboy hero – almost 50 years on from the publication of the first, 'Just William' of 1922.

Underlining the nostalgic appeal of the 1970s-80s toys that today’s collectors once played with as children, this group of Action Man uniforms estimated at £40-60 sold for £1300 at the Keys (20% buyer’s premium) Toys auction on July 7.

A signed memorandum letter sent by Nelson from HMS Victory to one of his captains sold for a mid-estimate £3200 at a recent TW Gaze (18% buyer’s premium) auction in Diss in Norfolk.

Three works by Ipswich painter perform well in rescheduled East Anglian-themed auction

The original names of the gold coins used by the indigenous tribes of Celtic Britain are unknown but collectors have dubbed them staters after the Greek coins that inspired them.

Norfolk auction house sells 11 guns with provenance to one of the most renowned enthusiasts

Responsible for the flowers at the Queen’s coronation, the society florist Constance Spry (1886-1960) is also credited with the ‘democratisation’ of flower arranging.

An unexpected star turn of a recent Norfolk sale was a job lot of works from the library of the late Ron Fiske of Morningthorpe Manor, an East Anglian collector whose books a Norfolk auction house first started dispersing a few years years ago.

Sold for £4600 in a February 6 sale held in the Chichester salerooms of Stride & Son (18% buyer’s premium) was an album of cut-paper work produced by Elizabeth Cobbold c.1810-20.

Publisher tried to link book to the poet to boost sales but a revised version was issued instead