South-east England

Charterhouse (25% buyer’s premium) has been holding auctions of classic cars, motorcycles and automobilia for nearly 20 years.

“The sun will shine, the cow parsley will be out and we can’t wait to see you all again”, said Caroline Zoob, co-organiser with Hetty Purbrick of the annual Decorative Living Fair.

This 2ft (60cm) tianqiuping or ‘heavenly globe vase’ is seemingly the only one known with this decoration.

As famous last words go, those of Major General John Sedgwick in the American Civil War take some beating.

Dreweatts’ May 18 sale of Chinese ceramics and works of art includes a 42-piece Chinese export part service which has been in the same family since purchase in c.1755.

Ewbank’s (24% buyer’s premium) held a dedicated Cars, Motorbikes, Scooters & Automobilia auction on December 2 in Send, Woking.

A small work by Maggi Hambling (b.1945) was among the pieces of Modern and Contemporary art attracting interest recently at Parker Fine Art Auctions (25% buyer’s premium).

Dreweatts’ (25% buyer’s premium) Modern & Contemporary Art sale on March 16 was led by some distance by the rare lead Mother and Child sculpture by Henry Moore (1898-1986) which was bid to £320,000 (see News, ATG No 2535).

The March 30-31 sale at Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium) in Wisborough Green included three pieces from the Royal Crown Derby Judge Gary service.

It was supposedly as a result of a bet whether it was possible to make a camera that could fit into a cigarette packet that Noel Pemberton Billing (1881-1948) began work on a miniature, collapsible camera that would accept 35mm film.

China trade wares attract significant bidding at Dreweatts

The sale of Photographica & Cameras at Special Auction Services in Newbury on April 26 features this complete set of 'Tour Of The World' stereoviews by the Keystone View Company of Meadville, Pennsylvania.

The Fine Photographica sale at Flints in Thatcham, Berkshire, on April 23 includes this Ansco Photo Vanity 'spy' camera, estimated at £800-1200.

A hitherto unrecorded set of four late 17th or early 18th century marble seasons statues took £230,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) at Summers Place Auctions in West Sussex on March 29.

Bound in blue cloth with a large embossed design to the upper cover and bearing a gilt-framed and lettered title, ‘Private Journal’, to the spine, a volume offered by Cadmore Auctions (20% buyer’s premium) was estimated at just £10-30.

While the market for post-war wares by Thompson’s of Kilburn – particularly the animal and figure carvings – has grown substantially in recent years, the ‘prime period’ for Mouseman collecting remains the 1920s-30s.

The Blickensderfer Typewriter Co of Stanford, Connecticut, introduced the Niagara ‘index’ typewriter in 1902.

Art and antiques shops and galleries offer an enjoyable retail experience with a knowledgeable dealer.

This rare creamware cylindrical tankard is printed with a copy of A Cudgelling Match between English and French Negros in the Island of Dominica by Agostino Brunias (1730-96).