South-west England

Last month, Britain’s oldest postcard publisher, J Salmon, announced it was closing after almost 140 years of business. Blamed for its demise was the rise of selfies and social media.

The final 2017 edition of the Cotswolds Decorative Antiques & Art Fair takes place from October 27-29 in Westonbirt School, Gloucestershire.

There is nothing so stylish in the world of vintage frocks as a 1930s wedding dress – all Hollywood-style glamour with long silky satin gowns.

A single-owner collection focusing on the polar regions was a notable feature of the travel section of the October 4 sale held by Dominic Winter (19.5% buyer’s premium). It included, at a 10-times estimate £3000, the posthumously published Memoirs of Lieutenant Joseph Rene Bellot.

The designated tribal art department at Woolley & Wallis (22% buyer’s premium) in Salisbury is now in its third year – and increasingly picking up consignments and regular buyers from well beyond its immediate hinterlands.

Part of a consignment from a deceased estate in Totnes, this stoneware bowl by red-hot studio pottery favourite Dame Lucie Rie was a near certainty to exceed the £6000-9000 estimate when Chudleigh auction house Michael J Bowman (17.5% buyer’s premium) received a £20,000 commission bid from Japan ahead of the September 23 Devon sale.

Modern sculpture, including a small rediscovered marine ivory piece by Eric Gill (1882-1940), took centre stage at Duke’s (22% buyer’s premium) in Dorset.

Cheap sterling can help bring in the foreign buyers – but only if auctioneers can deliver the right goods. These were much in evidence at Chorley’s (20% buyer’s premium) sale at Prinknash Abbey on September 13-14.

West Hall, located on the outskirts of Long Burton a few miles south of Sherborne, is an imposing stone-built manor house. The ancient iron-studded front door still bears the axe marks made by Oliver Cromwell’s Roundheads in the English Civil War as they tried to beat down the door. They suspected Charles I may have been hiding inside.

Maltese furniture commands a premium – and not simply because it appeals to a committed group of island collectors.

“There really does seem to be life in the traditional market”. Woolley & Wallis’ (22% buyer’s premium) latest Old Masters, British & European Paintings sale in Salisbury left specialist Victor Fauvelle in a buoyant mood.

An Irish family portrait attributed to Francis Wheatley (1747-1801) led the picture section at Clevedon Salerooms (20% buyer’s premium) on September 14 in Bristol.

A selection of good online illustrations plus a brief noncommittal description can be the regional auctioneer’s safest route when offering Chinese works of art. It proved successful when a porcelain bowl was consigned to the September 7 sale Greenslade Taylor & Hunt (19% buyer’s premium) held at Taunton.

A single-owner collection relating to the English Civil War featured among the 740 lots that made up a September 6 sale held by Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood (21% buyer’s premium).