South-west England

UK: A PRIME piece of Gothic revival furniture, this early Victorian oak metamorphic library armchair, possibly to a design by John Loudon, made £5600 (plus 10 per cent buyer’s premium) from the Irish trade at the Salisbury salerooms of Woolley and Wallis on August 24.

UK: DURING the industrial revolution, speed of production in the workplace was matched only by the consumption of beverage in the public house, and so far as the thirsty labourers were concerned one of the greatest mechanical inventions of the late 19th century was the so-called 'bar-screw'.

UK: CONSIGNED to the Taunton rooms of Lawrence’s from a local source was this German tinplate money bank depicting Mickey Mouse with a concertina.

UK: POP star John Lennon adopted a number of different guises throughout his career in the public eye – likely lad, mystic, cartoonist, photographer, songwriter – and likewise it now appears as though he was just as much of a chameleon in his sartorial life.

UK: AUGUST may be the quietest time of the year for the majority of the UK trade, but any business this week for the auctioneers and shopkeepers of Cornwall is likely to be overshadowed by a cosmic obligation on Wednesday morning.

UK: THE ENORMOUS wheel screw on this simulated oven gives some clue as to the gruesome purpose of the plated contraption which turned up at the Salisbury salerooms of Woolley and Wallis on June 23.

UK: WEST Country auctioneers Lawrence’s of Crewkerne posted a house record on May 6 when they sold this pair of George III marquetry inlaid rosewood and satinwood card tables to a New York dealer for £150,000 (plus 12.75 per cent premium).

UK: THE contents of Higher Farm in the Somerset village of Hornblotton provided the venue and the entries for auctioneer Peter Hobden’s sale.

UK: ALTHOUGH there were no real star entries at this monthly dispersal, around 727 lots managed to generate a total at £120,00 boosted by a silver section and some pieces of local interest.

Bearnes, Exeter, March 23 Buyer’s premium: 15 per cent UK: HIGHLIGHTS of this sale included Thomas Short’s Comparative History of the Increase and Decrease of Mankind in England... and also a Meteorological Discourse, 1767, which, in the process of assembling historical and medical information, advocates early marriage and denounces alcohol as ‘a Stygian poison’. It sold at £100.

UK: AROUND this time of the month it’s always a pleasure to report from that most elegant of cities, Bath where, as readers will know, members of the Bath and Bradford on Avon Antique Dealers Association take turns each month to donate the sale price of an item of stock to the NSPCC.

UK: IS this Gothic revival red walnut foldover card table, left, another rediscovered work by the great William Burges?

UK: FURNITURE from the East Coast of Africa is hardly common currency within the Cotswolds antiques trade but it was given unusual prominence last month with the appearance of this substantial 18th century hardwood chest with brass studwork decoration at the Gloucestershire rooms of Wotton Auction Rooms on March 23-24.

£25,000 bid sees trade becoming less perfectionist in hunt for quality UK: FEW dealers will talk bullishly on the record and the auction scene in the provinces does remain patchy – but all the evidence is that there is still money around and auctioneer Guy Schwinge saw its effect at his latest Dorset sale.

UK: THIS Victorian gilt overmantel mirror, right, was the unexpected highlight of Plymouth Auction Rooms (buyer’s premium 10 per cent) February 24.

UK: ROBERT Garrard is a heavyweight in the Victorian silver market, renown for large and imposing tablewares produced for the great and the good of mid-late 19th century society. And a fine example of the Garrard output was on offer at the Bournemouth Auction Galleries in March.

UK: NINETEENTH century brown carcase furniture of country house proportions and impeccable provenance attracted the higher prices at this monthly sale in the Cotswolds.

UK: AS good-quality traditional antiques become harder to find – no piece of furniture made more than £1500 among the 902 lots at Bristol – collectables are becoming more and more of a commercial proposition at auction.

UK: TOP LOT in this sale was a 1668 edition of Gervase Markham’s A Way to get Wealth, a ‘nonce’ collection, first issued in 1623, which incorporates half a dozen works by this important but prolific and commercially inventive writer on agriculture, who was not averse to putting different titles to what were essentially the same works or to re-issuing unsold copies of new books under new titles.