South-east England

Edward Cruttenden of Sunbury Antiques is looking forward to November 20 and the last monthly antiques and interiors fair of the year he runs at Sandown Park Racecourse, near Esher.

The 1882 Royal Worcester porcelain ‘Patience’ teapot has become a satirical emblem of the Aesthetic movement.

In 1888, in response to a tender issued by the War Office, Prof Archibald Barr and Dr William Stroud submitted an application for an optical range-finder patent to the Patents Office.

Highest price in five years is achieved for Manchester School and Staithes Group artist

Judging by recent events, members of the Conservative Party might well look back longingly to the days of Margaret Thatcher when Britain’s first female prime minister brought a comparative measure of stability to government.

Air Commander J Searby had a key role to play in the Peenemunde Raid targeting the V weapons factory during the night of the August 17-18, 1943, as part of the RAF’s elite Path Finder Force.

The big attraction in a job lot estimated at £60-100 that went on to sell for £14,000 in a September 23 sale held by Ewbank’s (25% buyer’s premium) was a copy of Britannia: or, a Chorographical Description…, Dr Edmund Gibson’s 1695, updated and English language version of a well-known earlier work.

Naive artworks that can also suit modern decorating taste are rising in popularity and price.

Translation was first time a major poem of antiquity appeared in an English language form.

An edition of Queen Victoria’s Leaves from the Journal of our Life on the Highlands… took £550 at a Mallams (25% buyer’s premium) sale of September 23.

Bid to £3400, a 1703 first edition of Martin Martin’s Description of the Western Islands of Scotland in a later full calf binding proved the most expensive item in the 250-lot book and ephemera section that opened an October 5-7 auction at Stride & Son (18% buyer’s premium).

A number of pictures from another single-owner collection caught the eye at Dreweatts a month earlier than the Flaxley Abbey auction.

While many US museums display portraits of famous Patriots from the War of Independence, especially the likes of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and Nathanael Greene, pictures of Loyalists are less common in their collections.

Well-known Hungerford antiques dealer and co-owner of Hungerford Arcade, Hazel Browne, has died at the age of 91.

Though the dust jacket featuring one of Pauline Baynes’ illustrations for the book is torn with loss and exhibits a number of patched repairs, a 1950 first edition of 'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe' did sell for £1100 against a guide of £500-700 on October 6 at Buckinghamshire saleroom Bourne End Auctions (17.5% buyer’s premium).

Forty years after he began identifying Victorian rubbish heaps then digging in them, a Kent collector’s faith in the saying ‘where there’s muck there’s glass’ was vindicated when fellow enthusiasts demolished estimates on scores of his old bottles.

A couple of ballet-related lots danced away for high prices over the summer.

One especially good reason to head for Brighton over the weekend of October 22-23 is the presence of two fairs running at the south coast city’s racecourse.