South-east England

A selection of whimsical and distinctive Doulton Lambeth stonewares sold across three auctions in December and January

More pieces from Britain’s biggest collection of breadboards were sold by Canterbury Auction Galleries (25% buyer’s premium) at the end of last year.

Cases boasting bronze lions decoration proved popular and were produced for two decades

This carved wooden tobacconist figure or ‘Cigar Indian’ came to Ewbank’s (25% buyer’s premium) auction in Send, Surrey, by descent through the vendor’s family.

While not instantly familiar to many non-American readers, The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams (1881-1944) has never been out of print and its many reprints have sold over a million copies in the US alone.

The most important of only 23 known surviving copies of the first – and subsequently withdrawn – June 1865 edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has been given jointly to Christ Church Oxford and the Bodleian Libraries.

An original illustration for one of the most entertaining works on rare book collecting hammered for £15,000 to lead Mallams’ latest Modern Art & Design auction.

An original Andy Pandy string puppet from the BBC children’s TV show of the same name first aired in 1950 caught the attention at a Kent auction 75 years later.

Paul McCartney famously sang ‘Baby, You Can Drive My Car’ with the Beatles but he could clearly drive himself.

Collection of film crew member who worked on gruelling Star Wars shoot in Norway comes for sale

A recent sale of Books, Documents & Ephemera at Stride & Son in Chichester included this 3½ x 2½in (9 x 6cm) brass and enamel cigarette case.

A Victorian full-sized lay figure owned by the sculptor James Butler (1931-2022) sold for £4000 at the Hansons (26.5% buyer’s premium) saleroom in Banbury, Oxfordshire.

Extensive collection also came with impressive records of purchase such as original dealer invoices

Dehua blanc de chine figures of Guanyin – the goddess of compassion, protector of mariners and bringer of sons – often carry the impressed double gourd seal of the great 16th or 17th century ceramicist He Chaozong.

The latest sale at Alastair Gibson Auctions in Kent was led by a stellar example of Meiji or Taisho era cloisonné: a pair of imperial presentation vases by Nagoya master Hattori Tadasaburo.

While the market for post-war Whitefriars has waxed and waned in the past three decades, in 2025 several very active collectors have driven saleroom prices forward once again. It has been a strong year for the Geoffrey Baxter Textured range in particular.

Two views of Chelsea Old Church by Walter Greaves (1846-1930) emerged at different salerooms in recent months.

Dealer Spencer Swaffer on the high street in Arundel has unveiled his famous Christmas window for this season.

A small number of intriguing 18th and 19th century pictures were among the works bringing the strongest competition in terms of the pictures at Gorringe’s (25% buyer’s premium) latest Fine Art & Interiors auction.

Probably given to Private William George Loveland by his wife, this ‘Soldier Bear’ was taken to France and back during the First World War.