South-west England

Works by Mr Brainwash (b.1966) are becoming an increasingly common sight at auction.

A pair of militaria highlights related to Irish regiments that came up in recent auctions.

The auction at Dominic Winter (20% buyer’s premium) on December 15 included two presentation first editions by Sylvia Plath.

Among the most eagerly contested lots in a sale of vintage posters was a set of three unrestored advertising posters by the Tuscany-born, Paris-based Leonetto Cappiello (1875-1942).

One of the most local consignments provided arguably the most notable lot at a Busby (21% buyer’s premium) sale in Bridport, Dorset, on November 17.

A December 6 auction in Exeter was dominated by a lot estimated at just £40-60 but sold instead at £24,000.

Macclesfield and Liverpool auction house Adam Partridge has expanded its operation into the south-east and south-west of England with the purchase of two existing salerooms.

Collectors of Staffordshire have noted a number of higher prices of late and further evidence of a more active market came when a pair of Victorian Staffordshire flatback figures was offered by Lacy, Scott & Knight (22.5% buyer’s premium).

Another slice of the collection which brought a Christopher Wood record comes up in Gloucestershire saleroom

Carved c.1880 and acquired in Shanghai during the 1930s, the opal cameo shown here was the choice of pre-Christmas jewellery offered in a Somerset sale.

The sale at Kinghams (23% buyer’s premium) in Moreton-in-Marsh included a 12in (30cm) carved cinnabar lacquer dish dating from the late Yuan or early Ming period – c.1350-1400.

A large reticulated ‘dragon and phoenix’ censer came for sale at Mallams’ (25% buyer’s premium) in Cheltenham from a Herefordshire vendor whose family had lived in Shanghai in the 1930s.

The Rokujuyoshu Meisho Zue (Famous Views of the Sixty-odd Provinces) series was the last great landscape work created by Japanese ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858).

A small and recently discovered painting by Peter Lanyon (1918-64) emerged at Kinghams’ (23% buyer’s premium).

The Higgs Deliverer ‘rake iron’ club was an attempt to solve a tricky golf problem: how to hit the ball out of sand, high grass or similar terrain.

William Nicholson (1872-1949) is known today for restrained and sensitively handled still-lifes but in his day he found more success with his portraits.

At Frant there dwells a Man of fame. By trade a Tailor, Smart by name.

ATG talks to two collectors exhibiting works The Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery in Exeter