South-west England

While anthropomorphic bird figures have long been seen as the most desirable products of the Martin Brothers’ art pottery, recently there has been an upsurge in demand for their equally characterful grotesque models.

Advertising ephemera from two large collections is on offer at Chippenham Auction Rooms on November 24 in Wiltshire.

John Edgeler and Roger Little are slipware evangelists. The pair are devoted to extolling the virtues of 20th century slipware by Michael Cardew (1901-82) and his peers at Winchcombe pottery.

It was the emergence of the very useful but somewhat hazardous ‘strike anywhere’ match in the 1830s that necessitated the fashion for vesta cases.

Wine labels from the old and celebrated Sandeman collection provided 63 lots to Woolley & Wallis’ sale in Salisbury last month.

This DFC medal group of a British Spitfire pilot who survived the war despite crashing and being given up for dead by his colleagues has an estimate of £8000-10,000 in Plymouth Auction Rooms’ November 21 sale.

This silver Art Deco trophy is one of the lots in the Cotswold Auction Company’s Vintage Costume, Textiles and 20th century Decorative Arts sale on November 20 in Cheltenham.

This portrait of a ballet dancer by Doris Clare Zinkeisen (1898-1991), is estimated at £4000-6000 at Chorley’s sale at Prinknash, Gloucestershire on November 15.

A large collection of playing cards comprising some 200 lots has been consigned to Stroud Auctions in Gloucestershire and will be sold without reserves on November 14-15.

In a marketplace seriously in need of entry-level collectors, the great majority of Royal Doulton character jugs and HN series figures are worth under £100 – and most of them less than £30 when sold without reserve at auction.

This 2ft 5in x 2ft ½in (75 x 62cm) bust length portrait drew the attention of a number of bidders with a particular interest in historical pictures when it appeared at auction in Dorchester.

This large, scratch-built 5in gauge Great Western Railway locomotive is one of two being sold at Lawrences of Crewkerne on November 2, with both expected to realise £3000-4000.

Once she was Picasso’s muse, now she is capping her own career of more than 25 years as an artist with a three-week exhibition at The Fosse Gallery in Stow-on-the-Wold.

Previously only known from a 1910 print and unrecorded for half a century, this 20in x 2ft 6in (50 x 75cm) oil by John William Godward (1861-1922) was sold by Lawrences in Crewkerne on October 12.

Works of art by architect-designer William Burges (1827-1881) are extremely rare – but serendipity has seen half a dozen pieces emerge recently in the regions.

Cotswold auctioneers Tayler and Fletcher are to hold their first live internet auction of Asian and Oriental art and antiques on October 18 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

Thirty original Art Deco seats from Cirencester’s Regal Cinema, demolished in 2004, are going under the hammer at local auction house Moore Allen & Innocent on October 12.

An exceptional find – a Roman white marble sarcophagus found in a Dorset garden – turned out to be something more of a rediscovery for Duke’s of Dorchester.

Joy Barnes (b.1912), a life-long artist and local Somerset resident who turns 100 next month, was present in the saleroom to watch her collection of Modern British art and studio ceramics sold by Greenslade Taylor Hunt in Taunton.

Previously only known from a 1910 print and unrecorded for half a century, this 20in x 2ft 6in (50 x 75cm) oil by John William Godward (1861-1922) will be offered by Lawrences in Crewkerne on October 12.