North-east England

Catalogued simply as ‘a pair of English soft-paste porcelain models of parrots’, these rare 18th century figures by Bow sold at Thomas Watson in Darlington, County Durham, for £16,000 (plus 24% buyer’s premium) on May 15.

A small soapstone figure of a grinning, reclining Buddha stole the show at Thomas Watson (24% buyer’s premium) of Darlington when it smashed its estimate of £80-120 to sell for £16,500.

In 1876 Lewis Carroll had 140 copies of 'The Hunting of the Snark. An Agony in 8 Fits' specially bound in gilt decorated cloth for presentation and just a few weeks ago ATG noted the sale at £3600 by Dominic Winter of one of the 20 blue and gold versions.

The value of ‘Outsider’ art continues to grow following the dispersal of one of the UK’s largest collections at Anderson & Garland (25% buyer’s premium).

One of the UK’s largest collections of Outsider art will to be offered for sale at Newcastle auctioneers, Anderson & Garland on October 18.

Newcastle auction house Anderson & Garland is under new ownership after Julian Thomson and Fred Wyrley-Birch bought out the previous owner Andrew McCoull.

Made in various materials across the centuries, brush pots used by Chinese scholars are steady favourites at UK auctions and the blue and white porcelain example shown here was no exception when offered at Thomas Watson’s (17.5% buyer’s premium) sale at Darlington on June 20.

As with many collectors and dealers, the antiques passion started in an auction room. As a child, some of Amanda Allinson’s earliest memories are of sitting with her grandma in the County Durham rooms of Addisons Auctioneers in Barnard Castle, the town where she grew up.

A selection of vibrant prints, artist’s proofs and portrait studies by the 20th century artist Eduardo Paolozzi (1924-2005) is up for sale in County Durham.

Auctioneers and vendors are quickly discovering that Europe’s country houses, furnished with the routine period objects that no longer generate great excitement, can occasionally yield valuable souvenirs of a colonial past.