South-east England

“We are always being asked about running our art fairs in Surrey,” said Deborah James, director with Sarah McAllister of Contemporary Art Fairs.

Outsold, predictably enough, by an 18th-19th century Chinese vase, two late 19th century Persian moulded pottery tiles were the eye-catchers among a buoyant Asian works of art section at Billingshurst auction house Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium).

With the centenary of the act that enfranchised female voters aged over 30 very much in the headlines, a collection of First World War uniforms and a photo album sold by C&T Auctioneers (20% buyer’s premium) underlines the role played by women in that conflict.

Marked CRA and dated 1895, a set of three silver spoons offered at auction represent a key point in the career of one of the giants of the Arts & Crafts movement, Charles Robert Ashbee (1863-1942).

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham described making her late work, a colourful and energetic collection, as ‘letting rip’.

Antique Church Furnishings, which describes itself as ‘God’s Furniture since 1985’, sells almost everything in the religious line – from chasubles to crucifixes and misericordes to missal stands.

Galloway Antiques Fairs returns for its second edition at the Midhurst stately home Cowdray House this year.

Billed as a collection, possibly better described as a hoard, the contents of boxes stored in warehouse units were “the magic ingredients for auction goers” according to Dreweatts’ deputy chairman James Nicholson.

In our series looking through the keyhole of ‘bricks and mortar’ shops, ATG talks to Brenda Nassarian of English and French decorative interiors business Arundel Eccentrics. When and why did you open the shop?

A pendulum clock used in an early longitude trial will be offered for sale by Dreweatts next month.

Lloyd Rust has run South East Antiques for 10 years. It is based in a 2500sq ft warehouse and trades mainly from eBay. He is also a heavy metal DJ and compere at the metal festival Bloodstock in his spare time. For the past 10 years he has also hosted a charity music festival in Chelmsford Essex.

Dawson’s Auctioneers & Valuers is expanding into the capital with a new valuation office in north London.

“Every auctioneer dreams of being instructed to handle a wide-ranging collection lovingly put together over decades and then packed away out of sight.“

An 1894 pencil drawing of a street in Antwerp by Walter Frederick Osborne (1859-1903) was among the last contents offered at auction from West Horsley Place, the Grade I-listed mansion in Surrey owned by historian and broadcaster Bamber Gascoigne.

MADAM – You may call me a pedant but in Brighton there is no such place as the North Lanes.