Surrey

Less familiar than some of the busts and maquettes of Winston Churchill by Oscar Nemon (1906-85) was this bronze resin maquette, below, offered at Catherine Southon’s (18% buyer’s premium) sale in Selsdon, Surrey.

Special loading area created to cope with increased buying from film and TV companies

This 21 x 15in (54 x 39cm) watercolour, below, probably depicting the New Julfa quarter of Isfahan, is by the Armenian-Iranian painter Sumbat Kiureghian (1913- 99).

Two English furniture ‘discoveries’ excelled against modest hopes at auction in mid-September. Top-end London dealers bought both pieces.

Boosted by the ‘wrong therefore rare’ factor – so important in the world of collectables – a 1977 British quad film poster for the first Star Wars film took top billing in a 250-lot specialist sale at Ewbank’s (24% buyer’s premium).

Surrey saleroom bucks the trend to hold dedicated picture auctions on regular basis

This c.1800 flintlock pistol below by James Wilkinson, London, was used on packet ships to protect the General Post Office mail.

Bearing a thumbprint on the title-page – along with a note by a secretary, Susan Macey, witnessing it as genuine – a 1988 UK edition of Stephen Hawking’s A Brief of History of Time… was estimated at £200-400 but sold for £3000 in a May 30 sale.

Inscribed by Winston Churchill “…For Mrs Johnston in these great days”, a 1941 (second) edition of 'Into Battle', the first of a number of collections of his wartime speeches to be published, was part of a lot that sold for a higher than predicted £3000 in a Surrey sale.

Jane Alexander of Dovehouse Fine Antiques Fairs is always pleased to welcome new faces to her antiques fairs at the Dorking Halls in Surrey.

“It seemed that the world and his wife and most of Surrey came out for our inaugural Sunday Sandown fair, the complimentary Pimms flowed and the afternoon jazz set from Sabina Desir and Nick Adams, who trades at both our Tuesday markets and is nifty on the ivories as well, set the tone perfectly.”

A large Persian lustre tile dating from c.1300 sold for £95,000 at John Nicholson’s in Haslemere last month.

Estimated at £300-500, a finely decorated Qing famille rose pen box and cover was knocked down for £33,000 at a recent sale at John Nicholson’s (25% buyer’s premium).

Launched two years ago at a Victorian mansion in Surrey by local online antiques dealer David Steel, the Tree of Ages Antiques Fair will be held on Sunday, May 12, at Robert Denholm House in Nutfield.

Edward Cruttenden of Sunbury Antiques is launching a biannual Sunday antiques market at Sandown Park Racecourse to run alongside the bi-monthly Tuesday market he has held there since a year ago.

When it comes to early or vintage photographs the interest is often centred around the social history of the material – the camera’s ability to document past events, be they special occasions or scenes of everyday life.

The wealth of material brought back to Britain from the days of the East India Company was illustrated at John Nicholson’s (24% buyer’s premium) sale when four Indo-Portuguese or Anglo-Indian tortoiseshell and ivory works were consigned by different vendors.