South-east England

One of the highlights of a busy week in the salerooms came at Dreweatts’ auction of the Sir William Whitfield (1920-2019) collection.

A copy of Sylvia Plath’s 'The Bell Jar' in a well-preserved dust jacket sold for £3000 in a recent Surrey auction may have set a record for any uninscribed or association copy.

A copy of JRR Tolkien’s 'The Hobbit' offered in a recent Surrey sale was a first-impression one of 1937, but essentially defined by its truly sad and defective condition.

The Crimea medal awarded to one of only two officers taken prisoner by the Russians during the calamitous Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854 sold for £14,000 at London saleroom Dix Noonan Webb (25% buyer’s premium).

Said to date from the 12th-14th century, an incomplete and dampstained Middle Eastern medical manuscript sold for £70,000 at Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium) on February 22.

Overseas interest fuelled bidding for two of the foreign offerings at Bellmans’ (22% buyer’s premium) Interiors sale in Winchester on February 12.

List of deaths is timely reminder that outbreaks are nothing new

The near dominance of Scandinavians among mid-20th century designers of wood furniture and artefacts was underlined at two sales at Chiswick Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) in February.

Textbook watercolour by the British artist takes one of his higher prices in recent years.

Sarah Colegrave is an art dealer and consultant working in London and Oxfordshire. She carries a stock of mainly British 19th and 20th century paintings, drawings, watercolours and sculptures. She next stands at the Wilton House Antiques Fair (March 6-8) and The Open Art Fair (March 18-24).

Napoleon Bonaparte’s magnetism remains as forceful as ever in UK salerooms.

Scottish Colourist George Leslie Hunter (1877-1931) is best known for his strong and vibrant still-lifes but landscapes also feature significantly in his oeuvre – and collectors will spend big to acquire the highest-quality examples.

Forty-plus dealers will be converging on the Holt Hotel at Steeple Aston, near Oxford, to stand at Antiques@The Holt on Saturday and Sunday March 14-15.

“A fabulous example of how an auctioneer can sell these collections so successfully outside of London,” said Dreweatts’ (25% buyer’s premium) managing director Jonathan Pratt in the wake of Donnington Priory’s latest auction of European furniture and works of art.

The so-called Hornby Castle Chair, a 4ft 7in (1.38m) high oak open armchair c.1580-1600, sold for £35,000 plus premium at the latest Oak Interior sale at Bonhams in Oxford.

Fawley Hill fair relocates down the road to the Meadows where the royal regatta is held

The Oak Interior sale at Bonhams in Oxford on February 19 included two substantial private collections consigned for sale from the US.

This early-20th century portrait by Ronald Ossory Dunlop (1894-1973) depicts the actor and artist Jean Shepeard (1904-89).