South-east England

After a 17-minute bidding battle, a Chinese blue and white bottle vase with a Daoguang (1820-50) six-character seal mark was hammered down for £270,000 at Gorringe’s in Lewes, East Sussex.

A piece of Orientalist art by German-born watercolourist Carl Haag (1820-1915) drew multiple bids at Maidenhead saleroom Dawson’s (23% buyer’s premium).

The binding of a copy of 'Vocabularis rerum' of Wenceslaus Brack sold in a recent West Sussex sale was a 19th century one and now broken, but this was in its time a very popular and much reprinted work.

Adding a classical touch to a highly successful five-day sale at West Sussex auction house Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium) was a 1st century AD Greco-Roman marble lower torso of Aphrodite.

This classic mail coach scene by the 19th century painter James Pollard (1792-1867) doubled pre-sale hopes in a picture auction at Surrey saleroom John Nicholson’s (25% buyer’s premium).

Collectors who missed out on a rare late 19th century cabin trunk at auction last week have the chance to buy another in West Sussex this coming Friday.

The height of fashion nearly three centuries ago, this 18th century doll’s dress caught the eye at C&T’s (20% buyer’s premium) specialist sale in Tunbridge Wells.

Extinct for 65 million years, dinosaurs continue to rule the world of children visiting the National History Museum, of multi-million dollar movie makers – and of bidders at the Evolution Sales at Summers Place Auctions (25% buyer’s premium).

A small Worcester mug painted with a rare blue and white pattern, c.1752-53, was among the stand-out sales during Jupiter Antiques’ latest exhibition, where it was offered for a price in the region of £4000.

Our weekly selection from salerooms.

The leading contenders in the December 12 General Election are struggling to land any meaningful blows on each other, despite being more than happy to be photographed in boxing rings.

Now in its sixth year, the 'Little Christmas Fair' in The Barn at Lark Rise, Lambdens Hill, Beenham, near Reading in Berkshire, is on Friday and Sunday, December 6-7.

Launched two years ago at a Victorian mansion at Nutley in Surrey by local antiques dealer David Steel, the 25-dealer 'Tree of Ages Antiques Fair' runs four times a year at Robert Denholm House.

Rountree Tryon Galleries celebrates its 60th anniversary next month, leasing out a large barn in Sussex to launch its annual Africa show.

Hornby Dublo collectors fought spirited battles for clockwork rarities at Duggleby Stephenson’s (18.75% buyer’s premium) York sale.

The practice of placing a metal mark on a building to indicate insurance against a fire started in earnest after the Great Fire of London (1666). Each insurance company had its own fire service and distinctive logo.

The talented Sèvres factory decorator Desire Leroy (1840-1908) came to the United Kingdom in 1878 to take up an appointment at Minton in Staffordshire. However, he is perhaps best known for his work at the Royal Crown Derby where he worked from 1890, aged 50, until his death in 1908.

A rare work by William Lambarde, the antiquarian, writer on legal subjects and author of the first county history, A Perambulation of Kent of 1576, was another highlight from the library of the late Eric Stanley, professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford (see reports in previous ATGs).