South-west England

DESPITE the latest news concerning the property company and auction firm Humberts, the Cotswolds fine art operation will continue as before.

This year’s FA Cup was seen as something of a turn-up with Portsmouth and Cardiff, two teams from outside the Premier League’s top four, reaching the final. But there was a time when the now-mighty Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal were nowhere to be seen in the competition.

IT was the finest UK collection of antique fishing tackle to come to auction for a decade and it arrived via an unusual route.

A TOUCH of spring arrived in Dorchester on April 10-11 where amongst a number of five-figure prices at Duke’s two-day sale was this tiny watercolour of a branch of cherry blossom by the prolific Victorian theorist, critic and artist John Ruskin (1819-1900). Dated 1857, it is displayed here a fraction less than its actual size.

A companion work to an August Bohm masterpiece has bought a house record to Gloucestershire firm Wotton Auction Rooms.

It’s not just the London salerooms that are benefiting from the renewed enthusiasm for Russian works of art. The highlight of the sale conducted by David Lay of Penzance on February 28-29 was this late 19th century silver gilt and cloisonné enamel presentation vodka set.

Historic archive from engineer who moved Egyptian obelisk surfaces in Exeter

Here’s one that didn’t get away. A major collection of antique fishing tackle comes to auction at Moore Allen & Innocent’s Cirencester saleroom on March 11 via an unusual route.

Asked to sell the contents of a holiday home in Sidmouth, Devon auctioneers Potburys were pleased to find this 181/2in (47cm) high cloisonné vase standing in the hearth as a container for fire irons.

A JUDGE’S ruling over an antique steel knife has challenged the policy of “Let the Buyer Beware” and may affect auctioneers’ cataloguing practices and their terms and conditions.

The appearance on the market of a piece of ‘A’ mark porcelain at Woolley and Wallis’s Salisbury rooms on June 4 will be an exciting occasion for English porcelain buffs, especially those of an academic persuasion.

This rare medal issued to those involved in the 1916 Easter Rising is up for grabs in the collector’s auction at Plymouth Auction Rooms on February 16.

SILVER sales at the Woolley and Wallis’ Castle Street Salerooms – that last year totalled an impressive £1.9m – are tailored to catch the prevailing winds of the marketplace.

Offered in one catalogue, British Art pottery was the main thrust of two sales held by Woolley & Wallis staged at the end of last year.

Drama at Lawrences of Crewkerne on January 17 when this remarkable silver gilt and rock crystal vessel, left behind its estimate of just £100-200 to sell to a buyer in the room at £220,000 (plus 17.5 per cent buyer’s premium).

Simon Chorley Auctioneers and Valuers of Gloucestershire have become the first art and antiques specialists to successfully apply for the new antiques road signs.

WHAT looked like yet another Old Master sleeper in the provinces appeared in Gloucestershire on December 7.

THE closure of Sherborne House in Dorset leaves a question mark over the future of the Elizabeth Frink Archive, the premier assemblage of the sculptor’s work.

ESTIMATED at just £1000-1500, a work catalogued as by a follower of Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) has sold for £2.2m at the Gloucestershire saleroom of Moore, Allen & Innocent (15% buyer’s premium).

AT Bristol Crown Court last week Torquay art dealer Colin Stodgell was jailed for three years for income tax fraud amounting to £750,000 over seven years.