East of England

Dreamy landscapes, fairies and classical female nudes fill many of today’s best-known canvases by the Victorian artist Edward Robert Hughes (1851-1914). But it was his skills as a portraitist that impressed critics most while he lived.

The pretty Suffolk coastal town of Southwold is well known for its delightful pier, Adnam’s brewery, multi-coloured beach huts and a Grade II-listed lighthouse in the middle of the town.

A scarce collection of watercolours by Biggles creator WE Johns (1893-1968) sold beyond expectations in Sworders’ (22% buyer’s premium) June 27 sale in Stansted Mountfitchet.

Gary Halford of Guildhall Antique Fairs is anticipating upwards of 150 stallholders at his annual antiques and vintage event at the Rutland County Showground, Oakham.

Along with its sister group in the US, members of Antiques Young Guns – “brilliant old things from bright young things” – now span at least three continents. AYG’s core message of support for up-and-coming professionals in the trade has never been stronger.

Following a near sell-out auction of Lowestoft in March at Keys of Aylsham, another tranche is poised to go under the saleroom’s hammer.

Highly collectable in itself, this 1920s car showroom lightbox advertising sign, right, had extra appeal to one bidder at automobilia specialists Richard Edmonds’ (20% buyer’s premium) sale at Chippenham on June 16.

A highlight of Sworders’ Country House sale in Stansted Mountfitchet on June 27 was a rare tinplate London omnibus.

Agatha Christie’s books were much in evidence at a Keys (17.5% buyer’s premium) sale of June 7-8, among them a 1921 first of The Mysterious Affair at Styles.

In our continuing series looking through the keyhole of ‘bricks and mortar’ shops in 2017, ATG talks to Paula Rippingale Mills, who runs Rippingales Antiques and Collectables in Suffolk.

The prolific 18th century writer Daniel Defoe, of Robinson Crusoe fame, wrote poetically of the River Waveney which forms the 50-mile boundary of the Waveney Valley between Norfolk and Suffolk.

A Suffolk antiques dealer who bought a cache of 19th and 20th century photographs and postcards of his home town at auction has used them to good effect by publishing a pictorial record in a book.

A major work by French academy painter Edouard Joseph Dantan (1846-97), unseen for over a century, has emerged at an auction in Colchester.

Norwich dealer James Brett vowed to continue dealing when he sold 300 pieces of stock at a Sworders sale in 2010. He has been good to his word and this year returns to Olympia for the first time in seven years. ATG spoke to Brett about his business and the wider market.

Andrew Singleton’s first of two annual exhibitions this year opens on June 10, and he is prepared for a rush of interest in early furniture.

Seventy years ago, councils around the UK launched Pictures for Schools, a scheme to bring original works of art into the classroom.

Watercolours by the polar explorer Apsley Cherry-Garrard (1886-1959) were discovered among thousands of works from Stanley Studios in Chelsea.