Auctioneers

“To the inhabitants of Wyndham Road, an unremarkable cul-desac of bungalows in Andover in Hampshire, Mary Stewart Lockhart, the white-haired old lady in number 5, must have seemed equally unremarkable… None of them could have realised that between the World Wars she had been one of the leading furniture makers, designers and businesswomen in the country.”

The so-called ‘dummy board’ or ‘silent companion’ is believed to have originated in Holland during the early 17th century.

Famed for his range of characters, Barry Humphries was also a bibliophile of great taste

A piece of British punk fashion history drew stiff competition at Newcastle saleroom Anderson & Garland (25% buyer’s premium).

Shortly after the production of the first batch of his jasperware abolitionist medallion, Josiah Wedgwood sent a package to Benjamin Franklin with a covering letter dated February 1788 saying: “I embrace the opportunity to inclose [sic] for the use of your Excellency and friends, a few Cameos on a subject I am happy to acquaint you is daily more and more taking possession of men’s minds on this side of the Atlantic as well as with you.

A key work by the Anglo-German studio potter Hans Coper (1920-81) has been found in a garden in London.

The Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas at Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury on February 19 included this striking tribal mask from central Africa.

Turned down by several publishers, Beatrix Potter shouldered the expense of privately printing The Tale of Peter Rabbit with Strangeways Printers in December 1901.

Tommy nearly made the supreme sacrifice to support the Allied cause in the Second World War.

Two Cartier brooches commissioned by Sir Stephen Courtauld for his wife have gone on display at Eltham Palace, eight months after they were sold at auction by Dreweatts in Newbury.