South-east England

Mid-20th century animal study contrasts with traditional ornithological work in same auction.

Not always predicted but overwhelming when it comes, big-money Russian interest sent a bronze equine group soaring at Dawson’s (23% buyer’s premium) in Maidenhead.

When auctioneer Tony Pratt spotted a mysterious shape in the undergrowth of a back garden in Hythe he wasn’t expecting to uncover a very large pottery bear.

A sketch attributed to John Constable (1776-1837) uncovered in a Holland Park home is to be offered at auction in Maidenhead – the latest in a string of Constable sketch discoveries.

Special Auction Services’ (17.5% buyer’s premium) sale in Newbury on July 9 included a wide selection of edged weapons which was topped by a mid-19th century Japanese short sword or tanto estimated at £200-300.

A Battle of Culloden period Clan MacTavish silver inlaid basket-hilted back sword sold for £4800, just below top estimate, at the Antony Cribb (22% buyer’s premium) auction on July 30.

Catalogued together with an incomplete silver propelling pencil with a bloodstone terminal, a silver Art Deco pocket lighter with a timepiece sold at £5200 (estimate £100-200) at Amersham Auction Rooms (17.5% buyer’s premium) on July 11.

The words ‘country’ and ‘brocante’ have an allure of their own as Lucy Haywood discovered when she founded the Country Brocante store in the village of Midhurst, West Sussex.

The collecting of English military swords is a science in itself.

A 19th century Russian shashka sword with fine niello-worked ornament sold for £6700 against an estimate of £250-450 at Amersham Auction Rooms (17.5% buyer’s premium) on August 1.

A lot comprising 31 posters plugging top groups and festivals from 1969-72 was the major hit at Bellmans’ (22% buyer’s premium) Photographs, Posters and Prints sale.

In a relatively short period from 1959-64, the Spanish-Italian Realist Xavier Bueno (1915-79) created his most recognisable works: a series of melancholic and haunting portraits of children. For Bueno these ‘Bambini’ portraits symbolised a “humiliated and oppressed humanity”.

This pair of green stained ivory cufflinks offered by Dreweatts (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) of Donnington Priory was made by Child & Child after a design by the eminent Pre-Raphaelite painter and jewellery designer Edward Burne-Jones.

This rare American scene by noted railway painter Terence Cuneo (1907-96) turned up at Canterbury Auction Galleries (20% buyer’s premium) in Kent.

Associations including Queen Victoria’s daughter help to boost 17th century manuscript.

Following “unprecedented demand”, a popular antiques and collectors’ marquee is set to return to this year’s three-day New Forest Show in Hampshire after it was not included in last year’s event.

Italian sculptors were the hottest property as garden statuary flourished at summer sales in the Home Counties.