South-east England

A surprise at a Hampshire saleroom on June 18 came in the form of a fine pair of early 19th century Chamberlain Worcester ‘Regent China’ cabinet cups in the French Empire style.

Fresh locations in use this year include venue based at former Kent colliery

A Henry VIII silver and parcel gilt apostle spoon, stamped to the stem with a distinctive maker’s mark of a heart in a conforming heart and dated London 1532, caused quite a stir when it appeared at Canterbury Auction Galleries (25% buyer’s premium).

Dreweatts’ (26/25% buyer’s premium) Fine Jewellery, Silver, Watches and Objects of Vertu sale of June 18 offered only 35 lots of silver but all were good quality and many rare in form.

This rare Chelsea porcelain leaf-moulded teapot and cover came between a goat-and-bee jug and a crayfish salt.

Dreweatts’ (26/25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) single-owner dispersal of items from Bussock Wood on June 4 included significant works from the Modern British canon.

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.

The Dreweatts (26% buyer’s premium) sale on June 18 included two Cartier brooches commissioned by Sir Stephen Courtauld to designs inspired by Eltham Palace.

Serpenti jewels, which followed the launch of Bulgari’s signature gold Tubogas bracelets in the late 1940s, were featured in Vogue and other fashion magazines on countless occasions in the Sixties.

Two days needed to disperse items collected over generations thanks to biscuit production success

Whereas deltiologists’ celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the British postcard may have been curtailed by Covid lockdown in 2020, no such restrictions encumber the opportunity for philatelists to mark the 100th anniversary of the British commemorative stamp this year.

The Alfred Jewel is a famous piece of Anglo-Saxon goldsmith craftmanship, a gold-mounted piece of rock crystal enamelled with a portrait of a man and the inscription translating as ‘Alfred ordered me to be made’.

Coming up on June 30 is the annual Sunday Kempton organised by Sunbury Antiques’ Edward Cruttenden, whose bi-monthly market at Kempton Park Racecourse recently featured as one of just two “antiquing” destinations in Qantas’ in-house flight magazine on the Sydney to London route.