East of England

While Georgian spectacles are relatively common at auction, 17th century examples are a rarer beast.

Art glass dealers look forward to the Festival of Antiques.

Modern prints can offer the chance to own interesting and eye-catching works, including those by well-known artists, without needing to invest large sums of money. This makes prints a viable option for collectors on a smaller budget as well as those just starting out.

Among the publishing houses that helped put Modern British prints on the map was The Curwen Studio.

Spotlight on businesses in the bustling antiques havens of Suffolk and Norfolk

A bronze sculpture of an ostrich catalogued as from the workshop of Mannerist sculptor Giambologna drew an extraordinary competition in Cambridge.

A work thought to be one of Thomas Gainsborough’s (1727-88) earliest attempts at oil painting as well as his earliest-known self-portrait was one of a number of lots drawing considerable attention at Cheffins.

Armorial head linked to the palaces of Henry VIII when he was married to Anne Boleyn.

Original photographs of a well-known Pre-Raphaelite beauty – the muse of William Holman Hunt and the mother of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell – sold for £2600 at Sworders (25% buyer’s premium).

The start of May is likely to be a busy period with outside fairs and markets opening up around England and Wales after a protracted lockdown hibernation. Here is a snapshot of a few of them.

MADAM – In September 1989, a valuable painting was left by my garage in central Cambridge.

Oil bought by the vendor directly from the artist Lucy Harwood features a still-life on the reverse

While the Museum of Power at Maldon in Essex does not yet have a firm date for reopening – to gaze at the original mighty steam-pumping machines – Steve Haddon of Haddon Events can still make use of the site.

After three lockdowns but also a successful auction launch last August in between closures, Graham Hessell will be throwing open the doors once again to his Melford Antiques, Interiors & Lifestyle Centre on April 12.

Thirteen lots in the exotically named Dr Atomicas Journey into Cool auction at Bishop & Miller in Stowmarket on May 7 have been consigned from an individual who worked for 30 years in the film industry with some of the biggest names.

This bust of the first American president George Washington (1732-99) is titled to the base, and signed and dated 'R Trentanove Fecc in Roma, 1827'.

Sold online for a far higher than predicted £600 in Norfolk on February 11 was a calling card of William Marwood (1820-83), who for many years was an official hangman.