West Sussex

Aboriginal painter Namatjira’s evocative Australian work makes rare appearance in a British saleroom

The latest sale of Objects of Vertu at Toovey’s (24.5% buyer’s premium) in West Sussex included two impressive examples of mid-20th century Australian goldsmithing.

A rare James II and Queen Mary of Modena silver medal commemorating a Spanish shipwreck recovered in 1687 sold for four times the top estimate.

A rare Royal Doulton prototype model of a ‘Boy on a Tortoise’ found in a modest house in Rickmansworth has sold for an impressive £18,000.

Ralph ‘Randolphus’ Ayres is recorded as being head cook at New College, Oxford at various times in the 18th century.

Roman Cieślewicz (1930-96) and Jan Lenica (1928-2001) were both founders of the Polish School of Posters, the influential and creative artistic movement that sprang up under strict Soviet rule.

A collection of close to 100 Arts & Crafts belt buckles formed just part of the remarkable Anthony Gardner collection sold by Bellmans (25% buyer’s premium) in Wisborough Green, West Sussex, on April 16.

Buyers were out in force early at the 'Petworth Park Antiques and Fine Art Fair', with sales taking place in the first few minutes.

Owen Simmons was a bit of a bread fan, it is fair to say. A lecturer at the National Bakery School in London, he produced the lavish book shown here.

Practical campaign furniture is one of the stars as West Sussex event reaches its 10th anniversary

Jeremy Knight, a book collector and the former curator of Horsham Museum and Art Gallery, believes he has purchased an artwork that is “the earliest-known illustration of a black person on an English sampler”.

The first auctions of the year at Summers Place Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) in Billingshurst – a live event on March 26 and a sealed bids sale on March 27 – included this pair of rare Portland stone groups of a nymph and satyr by Charles Sargeant Jagger (1885-1934).

Irish marquetry furniture is a very distinctive form of decorative technique associated in particular with Killarney.

Works consigned by family descendants of artists proved to be an intriguing aspect of the latest Old Master, British & European Paintings sale at Bellmans (25% buyer’s premium).