South-west England

A hand-coloured design for Charles Voysey’s 'River Rug' surfaced at Lawrences of Crewkerne where it sold at £21,000 (plus premium).

The third Great Tisbury Brocante will run on the spring bank holiday, Monday, May 7, all through the streets of the Wiltshire town.

Eight years ago textiles dealers Liz van Hasselt and Clare Powell came up with the idea of holding a monthly vintage bazaar in the Somerset market town of Frome, which has a cluster of vintage shops on Catherine Hill.

Celebrated in the thoroughly modern way with a Google Doodle on April 3 on what would have been his 325th birthday was John Harrison.

A gripping story which, until recently, has remained shrouded in mystery, provides the backdrop for an intriguing test of the market for SAS medals.

According to Chris Albury at Cirencester auctioneer Dominic Winter, an “an absolutely A1 example” of Roger Fenton’s (1819-69) famous photo The Valley of the Shadow of Death would make “£50,000-plus at auction, easy peasy”.

One of just 100 copies of a scarce, privately published edition of poems called Salvo for Russia, produced in 1942 in aid of the ‘Comforts Fund for Women and Children of Russia’, was offered in a recent West Country sale.

An oil by the famous Maltese painter Giuseppe Cali (1846-1930) fetched a five-figure sum when it went under the hammer at Moore Allen & Innocent (20% buyer’s premium) in Cirencester.

Given current market conditions, watercolours can often be ‘the poor relation’ when it comes to mixed category picture sales. But examples benefitting from fine condition, colouring or execution, or a combination of these key factors, can lead to a very different outcome.

Three more modestly valued works drawing attention at Woolley & Wallis

A painting of Farnham High Street from 1794 by a little-known artist fetched a not-so-little £8500 at Woolley & Wallis.

Marines and seascapes were a strong feature of Woolley & Wallis’ latest picture sale and, while there were plenty of affordable works on offer (see separate story), the sale was led by one of the larger works by a well-recognised name.

At some point in its life, an early photographically illustrated work on the art of wood turning offered in a recent Exeter sale had been converted for use as a postcard album, but it still sold for a four-times estimate £4300.

The 96-lot section of studio pottery offered at Woolley & Wallis’ (25% buyer’s premium) wide-ranging ceramics sale at Salisbury on March 21 included a private collection of the work of David Leach (1911-2005) and Walter Keeler (b.1942).