East of England

An unexpected star turn of a recent Norfolk sale was a job lot of works from the library of the late Ron Fiske of Morningthorpe Manor, an East Anglian collector whose books a Norfolk auction house first started dispersing a few years years ago.

The long-running monthly fair held in the medieval St Andrew’s and Blackfriars’ Hall in the centre of Norwich – formerly the 'Norwich Antiques Fair' and most recently the 'Upmarket Fleamarket' – was taken over last November by antique and vintage toy collectors Leon and Kevin McLoughlin-Smith.

Auction prices are on the rise for the late Norfolk artist Gwyneth Johnstone (1914-2010), daughter of the artist Augustus John and niece of the Welsh painter Gwen John.

An eyewitness account of the trial of two elderly widows on charges of witchcraft proved one of the more successful lots in a truly Out of the Ordinary sale held in Essex on February 11.

Two pictures purchased from one of the first commercial exhibitions of the artist dubbed ‘the Irish Alfred Wallis’ soared above their estimates at auction this month.

Our weekly selection from salerooms.

A Westerwald salt-glaze jug offered at Reeman Dansie's latest sale in Colchester was worked with stylised tulips and a medallion with the portraits of William of Orange and Queen Mary.

When buying back their heritage, Cardiff City FC and supporters may not be in the same financial league as Manchester United, but they were a welcome factor at Lockdales (19.5% buyer’s premium).

Publisher tried to link book to the poet to boost sales but a revised version was issued instead

The recent auction of 20th century design at Sworders (25% buyer’s premium) in Stansted Mountfitchet was underpinned by more than 60 consignments from the estate of MJ Long.

Sold for £4600 in a February 6 sale held in the Chichester salerooms of Stride & Son (18% buyer’s premium) was an album of cut-paper work produced by Elizabeth Cobbold c.1810-20.

Modestly catalogued as English School, 1960s, a Modern British study of a head emerged as one of the top-selling pictures at Sworders (25% buyer’s premium) in Stansted Mountfitchet.

A c.1900 half-length oil on canvas portrait of a girl with flowers caught the eye of bidders at Lacy Scott & Knight (24% inc VAT buyer’s premium) in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.

Bible suggests confusion over ‘he’ or ‘she’ may not be purely a modern-day phenomenon.

December 10 marked a significant step in the history of specialist sporting and antique gun auction house Holts (25-20% buyer’s premium).

The English artist and poster designer Alfred Thomson (1894-1979) painted this eye-catching depiction of the famous penguin pool at London Zoo.

Items from the homes of MJ Long (1939-2018) and Colin ‘Sandy’ St John Wilson (1922-2007), the husband and wife team that designed the British Library, come for sale at Sworders in Stansted Mountfitchet later this month.

The sale at Cheffins (22.5% buyer’s premium) in Cambridge on December 12 included a cache of Victorian and earlier silver from the collection of Delaval Astley, 23rd Baron Hastings (b.1960).

Provincial by geography but far from provincial in outlook, auction houses from Essex to the Yorkshire Dales underlined the international nature of their trade at recent auctions. Cosmopolitanism covered both what was on offer and who was buying.