South-east England

The auction at toy specialist C&T (22% buyer’s premium) in Kenardington, Kent, on November 3 included this very rare pair of doll’s shoes dated to c.1700.

The windmill cup was the most popular of the novelty silver wager cups produced from the late 16th century until the early 18th century.

Dealer Marcus Potts, a regular exhibitor at the larger fairs including IACF Shepton Mallet, has filled all 40 capacity spaces at his Antiques@The Holt fair at the Holt Hotel, Steeple Aston, near Oxford on Saturday and Sunday, November 27-28.

An opportunity to buy a portrait of one of Charles II’s mistresses emerged at a recent Bellmans’ (22% buyer’s premium) sale in West Sussex.

Estimated at £200-300 in the belief they were later copies, a pair of Sèvres dishes sold for £9500 at Sworders (25% buyer’s premium).

Estimated at £400-600, a Meissen chinoiserie decorated porcelain snuff box took £12,000 at Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium) in West Sussex.

Pictured here are two early English pottery tankards – both of them documentary pieces.

David Bowie is the star of a retrospective selling show of 1970s photography which will run at the Design Gallery in the Pantiles Arcade, Tunbridge Wells, from November 13 to December 31.

Top lot in a sale held by Mallams (25% buyer’s premium) of Oxford was a 1719-20, first edition set of 'The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe…', 'The Farther Adventures…' and 'The Serious Reflections…' in later but very smart bindings of red morocco gilt by Francis Bedford of London.

A group of “rare and interesting” 20th century cycling ephemera relating primarily to the Olympic Games offered by Catherine Southon (20% buyer’s premium) came from the collection of cycling journalist David Taylor (1937-2020).

Petersfield event moves to Waterlooville after NHS bags hall

A group of early 19th century microscope slides mounted with specimens of fossilised wood sold for £11,500 (estimate £1000-1500) to a Canadian private collector at Special Auction Services (25% buyer’s premium) in Newbury.

As an inventor and an entrepreneur, Dr John C Taylor feels a special affinity with the pioneering clockmakers of the English Golden Age. And it is this connection that has guided his collecting across several decades.

An “extremely rare” gold Thrymsa, or shilling, dating from 640-660 and minted in Northumbria or York, was the highlight of a pensioner’s collection of Anglo-Saxon coins sold at Canterbury Auction Galleries (27% buyer’s premium inc VAT) on October 3.

Christopher Dresser (1834-1904) designed two electroplated claret or water jugs for Elkington & Co of Birmingham in 1885 – both of them daring designs inspired by vessels from antiquity.

Underground or overground, London travel memorabilia amounted to a £95,000 hammer total at Catherine Southon (24% buyer’s premium).

Given that most antique furniture at auction tends to be good value only for the buyer these days, one can perhaps understand why it occasionally does not always receive the attention it once merited from auctioneers and valuers. As a result, occasionally a special item slips through.

Small bronzes form part of a group of sculptures underlining the market demand at regional salerooms.

The original ‘Poohsticks’ bridge from AA Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh books is to return to the ‘Hundred Acre Wood’ after it was bought by Buckhurst Park estate owner Lord De La Warr.