Yorkshire and the Humber

Two modestly estimated watercolours by the Victorian ornithological painter Archibald Thorburn (1860-1935) emerged as the star sellers in an auction in South Yorkshire.

As an alternative to shopping in the high-street chains, a group of independents have set up a hub at 53 Bo’ Grove in Grove Road, Harrogate, with 20 traders selling art, antiques, decorative salvage and Mid-century pieces.

One exceptional and very successful lot in a recent Yorkshire sale focused on penal reforms on the far side of the world.

Pitched at £200-300, this Russian diptych icon shown below triggered wide pre-sale Russian and East European interest ahead of Elstob & Elstob’s 20% buyer’s premium) sale at Bedale.

This Resolution and Adventure medal is one of 2000 that were commissioned by the British Admiralty ahead of James Cook’s Second Voyage.

After the Hartleys (17.5% buyer’s premium) September 4 sale, auctioneer Andrew Hartley admitted: “Furniture did not perform as it was hoped from tiny chinks of daylight discernible in the last few months.”

Harry Becker (1865-1928) is not well known outside East Anglia but he is much admired both for a skilled grasp of Impressionism and his choice of subject matter.

Our weekly selection from salerooms.

The Northern Antiques Fair, run in association with the British Antiques Dealers’ Association (BADA), takes place during Frieze Week, meaning buyers can snap up top objects in North Yorkshire as well as London in early autumn.

A large Georgian silver punch bowl made in 1824 (below) is available to buy from Highland Antiques of Aberdeen for £2450 at the next Galloway fair.

Pictured is award-winning photographer and interiors stylist Tamsyn Morgans who runs one of the workshops at Arthur Swallow Fairs’ Decorative Home & Salvage Shows.

A first edition of the most famous work in angling literature will be offered at auction in North Yorkshire.

The name Marklin always suggested an O gauge loco and tender offered at Tennants (20% buyer’s premium) would find a buyer against a £200-300 estimate but there was a considerably greater head of steam when international collectors looked closer.

Molly and Maud’s Place near York is reprising its open weekend two years after its first staging.

Jeffrey Lassaline has joined Tennants as silver and objects of vertu specialist.

Huge York event includes a mobile installation on bird theme.

In January this year we ran a Fairs & Markets story (ATG No 2374) about the Georgian former courthouse in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, which had reopened its doors as an antiques and cultural centre using the first floor only.

A 17th century oak panel marking the rebuilding of one of the best-known dwellings on the Chester Rows sold at auction last week for £4600.

On January 4, 1940, the London subsidiary of the Omega Watch Co received an urgent order from the Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Company for 2000 watches intended for Royal Air Force crews. Delivery was to be made by March 10, 1940.