South-west England

Nineteenth century aquatint and map provide global perspective in Gloucestershire saleroom

Works also sold in Penzance but not for six figures help to understand this market

A couple of dog portraits by leading Victorian canine painter John Emms (1844-1912) brought a flurry of bids at separate auctions held just a day apart.

Chorley’s (22.5% buyer’s premium) Fine Art & Antiques auction was topped at £28,000 by a 17th century Mughal ivory inlaid rosewood table cabinet.

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.