Kent

The artist Stanley Anderson (1884-1966) was a perennial sceptic of 20th century ‘progress’. An engraver, etcher and watercolour painter, he started working in line engraving in the 1920s when it was an outmoded and almost extinct form of graphic output.

What expert James Opie described as “the most intriguing collection I have ever come across” provided Rochester auction house C&T (18% buyer’s premium) with its biggest statement yet in the toy soldiers market.

Held on the first Sunday of the month in the centre of Faversham, the antiques and vintage market offers a wide range of items.

Chrissie and John Masters, of the Design Gallery in Westerham, are pictured below in their warehouse in nearby Enterprise Way, Edenbridge, both in Kent.

Trading as Hoof Brocante, Adrian Higham is among the most genial of men.

Best of 193 lots of film posters which made up a specialist sale at Burstow Hewett (15% buyer’s premium) at Battle was this variation for the classic movie The Maltese Falcon.

This bronze statue 'Embracing the Sea' by Jon Buck, created in 1998, sits by the entrance to the pier in the Kent coastal town of Deal, a three-metre tall monument to the town’s boatbuilding and fishing history.

Possibly the most memorable press exposure the Folkestone Triennial has had was at its first event in 2008 when Tracey Emin left a trail of bronzed baby clothes and booties across the town to highlight the numbers of teenage pregnancies across the south-east.

A tiny 19th century Venetian oil by Frederico del Campo (1837- 1923) went under the hammer for the first time in a century at Catherine Southon (18% buyer’s premium).

Comprising what amounted to a crowded Regency household, fully and elegantly furnished and inhabited by half a dozen bisque or parian dolls, a c.1820 mahogany dolls’ cabinet was the outstanding offering from C&T Auctioneers (18% buyer’s premium) in Tunbridge Wells.

Six years after the Victorian Hastings Pier was gutted by fire, it reopened last year after a £14m redevelopment. The funding included £11m from the Heritage Lottery Fund as well as monies raised locally and regionally.

Textiles dealers Caroline Zoob and Hetty Purbrick, organisers of the annual Decorative Living Fair at Eridge Park in Kent, met more than 20 years ago when they were exhibiting at the Kensington Brocante.

The opening of the Turner Contemporary in Margate in 2011 reinvigorated the tourism industry in the north Kent area.

The extra push of archive items accompanying medals at auction is well recognised but such material is increasingly on the advance in its own right. Honours offered with log books, diaries, maps, letters and so on are very attractive to buyers given the background story they create about the recipient.

A photo collection sold at C&T formed part of an archive relating to Brenda Long, secretary to General Sir H Ismay (later Lord Ismay), Chief of Staff to Sir Winston Churchill from mid-1944 until the end of 1945.

In Kent, the Design Gallery’s largest-ever furniture warehouse sale, including a basement clear-out, takes place on Saturday and Sunday, April 22-23.