Auction Reports

“Analogous to the Tunbridge ware but of a superior character” was Robert Russell’s description of his work at the 1851 Great Exhibition.

Mentmore (Towers) in Buckinghamshire was built in 1852-4 by Sir Joseph Paxton – creator of the Crystal Palace for the Great Exhibition – and Paxton’s son-in-law GH Stokes for Baron Mayer Amschel de Rothschild.

‘The Gregson House’ and its contents date from the early Victorian period.

Estimated at £40-60, a pair of puce decorated creamware plates sold for a surprise £2000 at Bamfords (21% buyer’s premium) in Derbyshire.

This early 17th century harpsichord is inscribed to the name baton for Andreas Ruckers, Antwerp, 1614.

Eighteen works by the Birmingham School artist Mary Ireland (1891-1980) were offered at a recent Lyon & Turnbull’s (25/20% buyer’s premium) sale.

An English delft drug jar offered by Great Western Auctions (24% buyer’s premium) in Glasgow was both a polychrome and a documentary piece.

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.

Ninety lots from family’s Norfolk home gave a taster of the traditional items they collected

Swaythling auction includes more than 80 pieces of 18th century English origin

The top-selling lots in the Swaythling collection sold at Christie's were paintings from a diverse range of genres and periods.

The Leica I debuted at the 1925 Leipzig Spring Fair at a time when it was still common for glass plates to be used in cameras.

The highlight of a Cornish auction on June 10 was an RAF logbook from Battle of Britain Spitfire pilot Flying Officer Arthur Peter Pease (1913-40).

This impressive carved and painted wooden half-block model of a salmon measures an impressive 4ft 10in (1.48m) across.

The tills are ringing once more at Dreweatts (25% buyer’s premium). Under the ownership of the Gurr Johns group, the Newbury firm sold by Stanley Gibbons for £1.25m in 2017 has received a welcome shot in the arm.

The Britains Boer War Army Service Corps Supply Column set is described by toy soldier expert James Opie as “one of the must-have sets for keen collectors”.

These two oak boarded chests, made to similar techniques four centuries apart, were offered for sale recently.

This Scottish Arts & Crafts brass framed mirror, above, is the epitome of the so-called Glasgow Style.

Grisly figures burning at the stake reflected religious background of Staffordshire potters

In June 2008, Canterbury Auction Galleries claimed a record price for a Louis Wain ceramic when a version of the 11in (28cm) Futurist Cat in blue with Amphora factory marks sold at £8200.