Auction Reports

Experiments with porcelain at the Swansea factory began in 1814 with the arrival of William Billingsley and Samuel Walker from the Nantgarw China Works.

The work of French designer Fred Brouard (1944-99) is not uncommon at sales in France and the US but seldom appears at auction in the UK.

Peter Closon (c.1594-c.1662) was one of the most prolific of the so-called First Period lantern clock makers – although little is known about his life.

Although catalogued simply as ‘a 19th century Art Nouveau glass’ and estimated at just £30-50, a letter that accompanied this rare wine glass gave a clue to its origins.

This rare Bow figure was spotted by English porcelain specialists at Kingham & Orme’s (23% buyer’s premium) two-day auction of Fine and Decorative Arts.

This bust of the first American president George Washington (1732-99) is titled to the base, and signed and dated 'R Trentanove Fecc in Roma, 1827'.

The sale at Adam Partridge (20% buyer’s premium) in Macclesfield on March 18-19 included a collection of 18th century English porcelain figures offered in around 30 lots.

The Winter Antiques Sale at Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) was topped by consecutive bids of £17,000 each for two Regency white marble busts.

At 20in (50cm) long, this stylised tinplate racer and driver was the largest toy car made by the German toymaker Johann Distler.

This 3in (7.5cm) brass and ivorine fishing reel is inscribed to the face 'Ustonson & Peters, Makers to the Queen, 48 Bell Yard, Temple Bar, London'.

Two very different ceramic objects illuminated The Spring Auction at Halls (20% buyer’s premium) in Shrewsbury on March 17.

Apprenticed to John Flaxman at the turn of the 19th century, Joseph Gott (1785-1860) travelled to Rome in 1822 on a pension from Sir Thomas Lawrence.

Filigree or micro-carving was hugely popular among fashionable English society in the late 18th century.

This pair of 1970s-80s stoneware models of hoopoes carry the monogram 'AG' for Lady Anne Gordon (Dowager Marchioness of Aberdeen (1924-2007).

A sale of design and 20th century decorative arts to be staged by Aguttes on March 30 spans items from the Art Nouveau era through to the latter decades of the 20th century.

On themes from Brighton Pavilion to a cat’s backside, well-known collection creates a stir

British wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill memorabilia in the form of slippers, brandy balloon and cigar box.

Stained glass windows by Morris, Marshall and Faulkner impress at auction

This late Victorian carved lime and soft wood panel is by James Peake (c.1839-1918), a carver and gilder.

Entered from the estate of an Ipswich craftsman-hobbyist, the corpulent figures shown below were two of his 144 wood carvings which met unexpected demand.