West Midlands

Found in a garden shed during a house clearance, this unrestored version of a classic c.1950 pedal car, below, attracted bidders online, on the phones and in the Wolverhampton rooms of Cuttlestones (17.5% buyer’s premium) on June 22.

Most of the UK may be going through a heatwave, but even if the clouds appear IACF’s new three-day antiques and collectors’ fair at the Staffordshire Showground will shine through.

It’s always heartening to hear of redundant churches being put to another use. A Grade II-listed Victorian church in Wolverhampton which has been empty for more than a decade is set to open as an antiques centre later this month.

It was catalogued as 19th century, with a replaced plate, later back batons, small chips and wear, age cracks and the gilt painted surface was thick and not original.

In what can be a doleful time for Doulton, encouraging words about the factory’s output from auctioneer Geoff Shepherd at ceramics specialist Kingham & Orme (22% buyer’s premium).

The morality laws of pre-liberal Ireland added to the allure and market value of this Goldfinger poster offered by Richard Winterton (17.5% buyer’s premium).

A typically moody oil by the Scottish painter James Pryde (1866-1941) was among the star lots at Cuttlestones (17.5% buyer’s premium) in Penkridge, Staffordshire.

Individually, watches which the War Office commissioned from 12 Swiss makers during the Second World War are not as highly rated as other military watches – but as a set they are a holy grail for British collectors.

IACF is to take over the running of the antiques and collectors’ fairs held in Bingley Hall at the Staffordshire County Showground.

Guided at £200-400, a pair of 17th century British school portraits (one pictured below) went on to fetch £1150 each at Halls (20% buyer’s premium) of Shrewsbury.

'Antiques for Everyone' held in Birmingham’s NEC is targeting new and returning exhibitors with a two-day weekend option.

Australian enthusiasts did much to buoy up the Royal Doulton market in its 1990s pomp. And one such fan certainly did his bit to bring some life to what can now be a weak market by consigning a choice collection of Lambeth, flambé, Burslem and prototype wares to Kingham & Orme (20% buyer’s premium).

Taken in June 1905 on the River Helmsdale in Sutherland, the very northern and wildest tip of Scotland, is this image, below, of two men fishing.

Huanghuali furniture in the form of a late Ming/ early Qing ping tou-an (recessed legs table) starred in the Oriental section of Brightwells’ (17.5% buyer’s premium) sale in Leominster.

LS Lowry’s industrial northern English city scenes, populated with his trademark ‘matchstick’ figures, have inspired many artists. Chief among them was Brian ‘Braaq’ Shields (1951-97), dubbed ‘Liverpool’s Lowry’.