South-west England

Pictures by eastern European artists generating interest from national-minded buyers is an increasingly common sight at UK regional sales.

LAPADA members Rebecca and Jonny Ralfe founded Ralfes Yard five years ago in south Somerset.

A rare opportunity to gauge the market for a major Newlyn School painting came at David Lay’s latest auction in Penzance when a lively and clamorous scene by Stanhope Forbes (1857-1947) was offered with a £120,000-180,000 estimate.

The furniture and works of art sale at Crewkerne auction house Lawrences (25% buyer’ premium) on January 21 included a set of George II walnut seating furniture with an excellent provenance.

If it’s a real mix of topics, genres and ages you are after, this auction had everything

Among a flurry of historical portraits coming to the regional market at the start of this year, arguably the most notable appeared at Oxfordshire saleroom JS Fine Art (20% buyer’s premium).

A Plymouth solicitor’s lifetime appreciation of West Country silver was shared by enthusiastic bidders at Chilcotts’ (21% buyer’s premium) Honiton rooms.

Published in 1906 in a limited run of just 100 copies on paper and 20 on vellum was an edition of Sir Thomas More’s Utopia employing a red and black Subiaco typeface with red initials designed by Eric Gill.

Among the more unusual recent lots at Woolley & Wallis (25% buyer’s premium) was an early Victorian table carved from parrot coal.

Intriguing lot offered paintings as central element and elaborate border section combined

A 20-piece group of early carved sculpture is on offer from Cotswold dealership Houlston.

The potent mix of China, horseracing and the 1851 Great Exhibition yielded a strong price for this splendid ‘export’ silver trophy at auction.

If you cannot decide on whether to collect dolls’ houses or toy vehicles, try this lot offered at Lawrences (25% buyer’s premium) of Crewkerne.

Although catalogued by Smiths of Newent (20% buyer’s premium) as a chair from the early 19th century Empire period, this ebonised mahogany, gilt and polychrome side chair is more probably from the mid-Victorian period.

As in so many collecting fields, slight variations can be key when it comes to pricing of TV generation toys.

Two of the main manufacturers of rocking horses – and competitors – featured in two salerooms recently.

Greywacke sculpture headlines a series of high-flying results including £66,000 double bass

The recent release of 'The Electrical Life of Louis Wain' starring Benedict Cumberbatch provided a topical spin to this rare Amphora pottery model.

A handsome group of eight volumes commemorating the Great Exhibition of 1851 sold in Exeter had been presented to one of its commissioners, England’s serial Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone.

Pedal cars are regular visitors to salerooms but rarer powered versions were also produced for children to use, partly for road safety training