South-west England

Titled ‘In the District of Moka’, the hand-coloured litho plate shown here is one of 40 that make up a scarce folio of 1832, Thomas Bradshaw’s Views in Mauritius, or Isle of France…

Artist often overshadowed by husband William now comes into her own at auction.

Despite its size and various eras of occupation, Malta sustained a vibrant silver and gold-working tradition across several centuries.

News from Antiques on High, the antiques centre saved for the city of Oxford when it was bought by antique furniture dealer Vincent Page last year, alerted via a tweet about a story in ATG.

Sally Knott has been running the biannual two-day Dorset Brocante for three years at two venues: in August at Deans Court, Wimborne, and in the autumn at Larmer Tree Gardens, near Salisbury.

Woolley & Wallis celebrated its 10th £1m-plus lot last week, selling a portrait by Chinese contemporary artist Yang Fei Yun (b.1954) for £1.7m (plus premium). The sitter – the artist’s wife pictured in the early days of their marriage – was in Salisbury to watch the sale.

A Distinguished Flying Cross medal group offered at Stroud Auctions (18% buyer’s premium) on November 7-8 underlines the sometimes rudimentary nature of the embyonic early war in the air.

This classic First World war recruitment poster with the Old Lion of Britain calling on the Young Lions to answer the call to fight is estimated at £200-400 in Onslows’ poster auction on December 14.

A popular form of gift or memento to loved ones as troops left for the front was a ‘sweetheart brooch’.

The Hundred Days Offensive broke the back of German resistance in 1918 and by November the Allies were surging well beyond the once static Western Front.

As soon as the devastating power of machine guns in the First World War became clear, the British Army abandoned its earlier policy of attaching a section of just two guns to each infantry battalion or cavalry regiment.

Although ubiquitous for much of the 20th century, electrical masterclocks regulating other timepieces in schools, hospitals, government buildings and factories are as yet among the least researched aspects of horology.

One of the busiest of Naomi Knight’s monthly markets at the Listed Green Park Station in Bath is her Christmas Vintage and Antiques Market.

Alongside living with bushmen in Africa, visiting 33 native tribes in Brazil and riding the length of the Great Wall of China, the Cornish-based explorer Robin Hanbury-Tenison (b.1936) also found time to pursue another passion – one much closer to home.

Edwin Harris (1855-1906) is one name that did not feature in the Robin Hanbury-Tenison collection of Newlyn School art at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood (see main story in this section).

The sale of the Anne Shannon collection of British and Continental designer jewellery will live long in the memory.

Woolley & Wallis followed the Shannon collection with a mixed-owner sale on November 1. Together the auctions brought a premium-inclusive £2.1m.