Duke's

The watch market can be obsessed with brand names – and the best names do come with a price tag to match.

A ‘Jolly Roger’ or pirate flag that records the Second World War exploits of a British submarine flew once more in a militaria sale earlier this summer.

Among the 20th century works on paper generating demand at regional sales in the last few months was a Keith Vaughan (1912-77) study of a group of bathers.

A Victorian sapphire, diamond and pearl brooch-pendant was one of two pieces with Indian roots offered for sale at Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium).

The Asian art sale at Duke’s of Dorchester, scheduled for May, has been moved back to June 15 to incorporate a significant late consignment.

Auction figures for firms outside London show a shake-up of the status quo

The highest single price posted in the regions during the autumn series of Asian art sales was the £380,000 bid at Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) in Dorchester for a monumental Sino-Tibetan gilt bronze devotional figure of Tara broadly dated to the Qing period.

The outstanding jade offered in the regions in the October-December period was this pale celadon teapot and cover that came for sale at Duke’s in Dorchester on December 8 from a Dutch private collection where it had been since the 1980s.

Many of the unsung British heroes of both world wars served in the royal and merchant navies carrying and protecting supplies to Russia or the USSR.

Among the book lots offered as part of an October 7-8 sale at Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) the earliest was a Burgundian ‘Hours of the Virgin’ manuscript.

In 2010 The National Gallery held the first exhibition of works by Frederick Cayley Robinson (1862-1927) in the UK for 30 years.

Emile Berliner (1851-1921), a German clerk in a Washington DC haberdashery, is credited with inventing both the first commercially successful disc record and the first machine to play it.

A Paula Rego (b.1935) print was among the works bringing interest at a charity sale held by Dorchester saleroom Duke’s to support a disability centre.

Duke’s sale in Dorchester on November 25 includes this pair of Yongzheng period (1723-35) famille rose fish bowls.

Celebrating the county’s history, literature and its arts and crafts, an inaugural Dorset Auction was held in Dorchester by Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium).

Only a handful of companies have created products with sufficient impact that their brand names become generic descriptions for objects of their type.

A tinplate model of the Alfa Romeo P2 sped past a £500-1000 estimate to take £4600 at Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) auction in Dorchester.

This 6½in (16cm) Irish silver gilt chalice dating from c.1480 is a rare survival from before the Reformation.