South-west England

Belgrave St Ives is moving from its premises of 22 years to operate as an online gallery from September 1. Formerly using a space on Fore Street, it will now run out of its studio and art store in nearby Towednack, where individual viewings may be arranged.

Once the second city in the kingdom, Norwich had its own silver assay office during three periods between 1565 and 1702.

Extensively interleaved with scholarly notes and running to over 700pp, a Japanese and English Dictionary compiled by JC Hepburn was a notable rarity in a Cornish summer sale.

The Robert Thompson firm produced shire horses, such as this example offered by Lawrences (25% buyer’s premium) of Crewkerne on July 23, from the 1960s-90s.

A group of works of art from a country home once owned by members of the Rothschild family boosted the latest Woolley & Wallis auction.

Matthias Buchinger (1674-1740), the so-called ‘Little Man of Nuremberg’, was just 2ft 5in (74cm) tall. Born in Ansbach without legs and having truncated arms without fingers, he nonetheless excelled at many occupations associated with physical dexterity.

Some aspects of the traditional antiques market continue to perform with zest – and ‘folk art’ is among them.

Two traditional drinking vessels brought surprising toasts to European craftsmen at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood (23% buyer’s premium) in Exeter.

Circumstances are quickly changing the way items are bought and sold at auction – but the first principles of quality, keen pricing and provenance still apply.

Pictured here are two of four photographs by Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-79) sold via thesaleroom.com for £8000 by Duke’s (22% buyer’s premium) of Dorchester.

Spread over two days and running to 600 lots, a very mixed sale held by Dominic Winter (20% buyer’s premium) included Oscar Wilde’s 'The Importance of being Earnest' as one of the literary high spots.

Sapphires come in a range of hues from colourless to blue. The ‘fancy’ canary yellow stones, caused by trace amounts of iron, are particularly desirable - the best found in Sri Lanka.

Estimated at just £30-50, a late 19th century sampler sold via thesaleroom.com for £1850 at Wotton Auction Rooms (18% buyer’s premium) in Gloucestershire. A clue to the appeal is the inscription 'M Mountain, 5 Orphan House, Ashley Down, Bristol, 1879'.

Collected by a Scottish enthusiast, 26 railway station totems – the enamel signs introduced across the UK by newly nationalised British Rail in 1948 – gained UK-wide interest at McTear’s (24% buyer’s premium) in Glasgow.

A terracotta sculpture of Mary Seacole (1805-81) sparked fierce competition at Dominic Winter.

Pair thought to be Derby are rated as Gilbody rarities by specialist and dealer who competed

The contents of a country house in Exmouth turned up not one but two large watercolours by Archibald Thorburn (1860-1935), the pre-eminent British painter of ornithological subjects.