Dorset

Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty, has been a favourite subject in art since ancient times.

The Winter Antiques Sale at Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) was topped by consecutive bids of £17,000 each for two Regency white marble busts.

This 3in (7.5cm) brass and ivorine fishing reel is inscribed to the face 'Ustonson & Peters, Makers to the Queen, 48 Bell Yard, Temple Bar, London'.

British wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill memorabilia in the form of slippers, brandy balloon and cigar box.

A tankard said to be made from the hide of Oliver Cromwell’s warhorse was the toast of an auction in Dorchester.

With all 80 lots getting away – 79 to a single UK collector – a group of walking sticks totalled more than £40,000 at Charterhouse (25% buyer’s premium).

Although now known as Gainsborough chairs, generous walnut and upholstered armchairs were often referred to by contemporaries as ‘French’ chairs, as the most elaborate styles were based on French rococo.

Label, listed provenance and technical qualities lead to a contest to land a possible big Guercino catch.

The mixed-owner element of a recent Onslows’ sale included a William Russell Flint (1890-1969) LNER poster showing Bamburgh Castle.

A ‘superb connoisseur’s collection’ of classic travel posters underlined the appeal of rare works from the biggest names of this genre

The unusual Chinese porcelain model (pictured below) forms the shape of a lingzhi stem vividly enamelled with a blend of green, blue and pink glazes. It measures 9in (23cm) high and carries a Qianlong (1736-95) mark.

Semley Auctions (22% buyer’s premium) in Dorset secured one of the choice consignments this season: the Martin Robert Morland (1933-2020) collection of Chinese ceramics.

It is thought that the earliest Chinese porcelain monteith appeared c.1715, coinciding with the establishment of the East India Company’s factory in Canton.

Mark Jerram specialises in contemporary figurative pictures and sculpture by Contemporary British artists at his business The Jerram Gallery in Dorset.

Two Scottish coastal pictures attracted multiple bidders at Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) latest Art & Design sale.

This tin-glazed earthenware fragment comes from a once magnificent early Italian maiolica ‘istoriato’ dish from the first half of the 16th century.

Grandma’s Attic Fairs is holding its first antiques and collectors’ event this weekend since lockdown in early March.

Motor cars became more affordable and reliable particularly in the 1920s-30s, making day trips increasingly popular.

Just occasionally it doesn’t always pay to catalogue with great depth.