UK

A selection of these functional but fascinating objects that have appeared at recent sales

Francis Towne watercolour was one of his many works to have gone through Agnews

An update of events from Norfolk , Suffolk and London

The most unusual armour lot to emerge in recent sales was the late 16th century German brass parade cuirass which made £86,000 at Thomas Del Mar (20% buyer’s premium) in London on December 8.

The surprise lot at the sale held on December 11 by Ripon auction house Elstob & Elstob (22% buyer’s premium) was this 19th century Russian hunting dagger.

Angling and fishing fans will be familiar with the firm Hardy of Alnwick. In 1872 William Hardy set up shop as a gunsmith.

Estimated at just £60-100, a pair of Georgian portrait miniatures sold online for £2900 at Amersham Auctions (17.5% buyer’s premium) on January 6.

Leslie Fleischman runs Vintage Watch Room London, which specialises in 20th century watches marketed as ‘both affordable and stylish’.

Horology dealer who will stand at Lingfield says buyers are keen to do repairs themselves

A significant collection of works by George Bissill (1896-1973), the Derbyshire miner who enjoyed some fleeting success as an artist in the 1920s-30s but who later died largely forgotten, emerged recently at Mallams (25% buyer’s premium) in Oxford.

Superb set of the Dickens classic was painstakingly assembled as originally issued

Offered at Sotheby’s (26/20/13.9% buyer’s premium) in an online sale that ran until December 1 under the title of The Fantasy World of Arthur Rackham was a collection of 31 original ink and watercolour artworks by the artist from the collection of American photographer Shirley Carter Burden (1908-89).

Arms and armour sales often throw out interesting talking points in the way of accessories.

Furniture dealer Malcolm Eglin Antiques from Northumberland brings a c.1760 mahogany tip-up table to the first Galloway Fairs event of the year.

Handed in by miners at the start of a shift in exchange for a Davy lamp, colliery tokens, tallies or checks provided vital information in the event of fire or explosion.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

A Lloyd’s Patriotic Fund sword of £100 value took the honours at a Bonhams’ (27.5/25/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) sale of arms and armour.

New fair organiser says university city is now a huge market thanks to high-tech developments

News in brief from fairs in the UK regions.