North-west England

Maud O’Reilly (1886-1971), a key figure in Queensland’s Arts & Crafts movement and a student of the LJ Harvey school, showed her pottery at a number of British exhibitions in the mid 1920s.

Books, catalogues, ephemera, pictures and other material from the collections of the Shorthorn Society of the United Kingdom & Ireland formed a significant part of a recent Carlisle sale.

Irish painter William Conor (1881-1968) received many official commissions during a prolific artistic career, including from King George V, but it was his warm and sympathetic portrayals of working-class life in Ulster that are best known today.

Four military maps encompassing Siam (Thailand), Hong Kong, Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia took an unexpected £3700 at the Peter Wilson (22% buyer’s premium) Arms, Militaria, Medals & Firearms auction earlier this year.

London became the training ground for many young South African artists during the inter-war years. Among them was Cape Town painter Freida Lock (1902-62) who attended Heatherley School of Art and the Central School of Art where she was introduced to the works of post-Impressionists such as Van Gogh, Cézanne and Braque.

An historic archive belonging to the engineer who oversaw the design of the Mulberry Harbours in the Second World War comes to auction in Cumbria later this month.

Frankly catalogued as in need of restoration and ‘sold as seen’, a late-17th century walnut and marquetry chest had the inherent quality to attract phone and internet bidders from across the UK to the Carlisle rooms of Thomson Roddick (17.5% buyer’s premium).

Battered and dust-engrained when found in a basement during a Lake District house clearance, an early unsigned brass lantern clock generated great excitement at Penrith Farmers’ & Kidd’s (18% buyer’s premium).

A sculpture that had previously been owned by Stanley Seeger’s personal assistant at Sutton Place set a house record at Adam Partridge.

Modestly estimated at just £100-150 in a recent Carlisle sale, an 18th century manuscript notebook offering ‘An Account of the Improvements in the Gardens & Park at Cannonhall’ proved a major attraction.

Comics played a significant part in a recent held by Mitchells (20% buyer’s premium) of Cockermouth, undoubtedly helped by the presence of some 30,000 Marvel comics from one private collection.

A watercolour by Michel-Jean Cazabon (1813-88), Trinidad’s first internationally known artist, sold for £24,000 (plus 18% buyer’s premium) in Lancashire earlier this month.

Solo Antiques offers a selection of French Daum landscape cameo glass pieces at Stonyhurst College Antiques & Fine Art Fair this month.

This pencil drawing of a bearded man with a walking cane by LS Lowry (1887-1976) is typical of the stylised figures based on the men and women the artist passed in the street.

Time is of the essence in the story of Speed Menefee (1879-1968), the shortest-serving city mayor in US history – and original owner of a pocket watch offered at the Chester Decorative Antiques & Art Fair.

A harbour view of Maryport in Cumbria by Victorian artist William Mitchell (1806-1900) topped the lots at local saleroom Mitchells (20% buyer’s premium).

Linda and Stephen Marsh, trading as Marsh Vintage Salvage, are among the dealers at Fairfield House Antiques Centre in Cockermouth in the Lake District.