North-west England

Two dealers and fair organisers are opening an antiques shop in Carlisle Cathedral Lodge.

John Lennon’s letter to the Queen returning his MBE could make its £60,000 for the vendor who acquired it for only £10.

Frontman Paul Weller’s shoes and bassist Bruce Foxton’s guitars were among 800 lots of The Jam memorabilia auctioned at the weekend.

Robert Salmon’s 1814 oil painting ‘The Frigate William Fell off Greenock’ set a house record at Mitchells of Cockermouth earlier this month when it was knocked down at £79,000.

The majority of a collection that was previously part of a long-running public exhibition of The Jam memorabilia comes to auction in Liverpool this October.

Hutchinson Scott is set to hold its first sale in two years after the founder of the Yorkshire auction house came out of retirement and helped his son restart the family business.

Dinky toys, antique dolls and a life-sized Dalek will be among the lots offered in Mitchells’ first ever ‘Vintage & Antique Toys’ auction at their Cockermouth saleroom later this month.

How times change. The British cycling roll of honour now features such illustrious names as Bradley Wiggins, Chris Hoy, Mark Cavendish, Chris Froome, Laura Trott and Victoria Pendleton.

Classic car and motorcycle specialist H&H Classics is bringing in talent from outside the auction world to lead its next phase of development.

Football Sport Auctions Limited, a Merseyside company specialising in auctioning football memorabilia, ceased trading in April owing large sums to a long list of consignors.

Catalogued as white metal, with no hallmarks, a snuff box included in the silver section at Adam Partridge’s recent sale at Macclesfield caused a stir. The mark it did have was that of the great Huguenot maker, David Willaume.

The so-called Lucerne pattern, decorated in primary colours with a stylised Mediterranean chateau in a landscape, ranks among the scarcest and most desirable of all designs from Clarice Cliff’s ‘Appliqué’ range.

The Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool have an auctioneer to thank for the inclusion of three previously unseen works in the exhibition Pre-Raphaelites: Beauty and Rebellion that opened earlier this month.

Leading specialists in antique furniture have joined a campaign to preserve a touchstone collection of Gillows furniture ahead of multiple museum closures in Lancashire.

Items from the estate of Mary Burkett, former director of Abbot Hall Art Gallery in Kendal, attracted great excitement and plenty of competition at Mitchells of Cockermouth last week.

Fancy spending thousands of pounds on a lovely lump of vomit?

An impressive collection of pictures, studio pottery, furniture, personal effects and letters has been consigned to auctioneers Mitchells of Cockermouth from the estate of Mary Burkett, former director of Abbot Hall art gallery in Kendal.

Yellow-ground wares from the Vincennes soft-paste porcelain workshops are great rarities.

This large Burmantofts faience plaque sold for £7000 at 1818 Auctions of Milnthorpe, Cumbria. The vendor, who bought it at a car boot sale for £20, was in the room to watch bidding surge way beyond a £400-600 estimate.

A Chelsea porcelain beaker with blue and white botanical decoration caused a sensation at Peter Wilson latest sale in Nantwich. Estimated at £100-200, it sold at £37,000.