South-west England

Macclesfield and Liverpool auction house Adam Partridge has expanded its operation into the south-east and south-west of England with the purchase of two existing salerooms.

Carved c.1880 and acquired in Shanghai during the 1930s, the opal cameo shown here was the choice of pre-Christmas jewellery offered in a Somerset sale.

Another slice of the collection which brought a Christopher Wood record comes up in Gloucestershire saleroom

Collectors of Staffordshire have noted a number of higher prices of late and further evidence of a more active market came when a pair of Victorian Staffordshire flatback figures was offered by Lacy, Scott & Knight (22.5% buyer’s premium).

The Rokujuyoshu Meisho Zue (Famous Views of the Sixty-odd Provinces) series was the last great landscape work created by Japanese ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858).

The sale at Kinghams (23% buyer’s premium) in Moreton-in-Marsh included a 12in (30cm) carved cinnabar lacquer dish dating from the late Yuan or early Ming period – c.1350-1400.

A large reticulated ‘dragon and phoenix’ censer came for sale at Mallams’ (25% buyer’s premium) in Cheltenham from a Herefordshire vendor whose family had lived in Shanghai in the 1930s.

A small and recently discovered painting by Peter Lanyon (1918-64) emerged at Kinghams’ (23% buyer’s premium).

At Frant there dwells a Man of fame. By trade a Tailor, Smart by name.

ATG talks to two collectors exhibiting works The Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery in Exeter

The Higgs Deliverer ‘rake iron’ club was an attempt to solve a tricky golf problem: how to hit the ball out of sand, high grass or similar terrain.

William Nicholson (1872-1949) is known today for restrained and sensitively handled still-lifes but in his day he found more success with his portraits.

The Makuzu Kozan workshop was established by Miyagawa Kozan (1842- 1916) in Yokohama, one of the main portals of trade with the West, in 1871.

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

Found in a cigar box during an attic clearance and taken to Exeter auction house Bearnes, Hampton & Littlewood (25% buyer’s premium), seven framed daguerreotypes in poor condition provided one of the better sleepers of the year on November 22-23.

Commissioned by the 'Illustrated London Times' to document the construction of the mighty Great Eastern, the young photographer Robert Howlett (1831-58) took some of the most famous images of ship’s designer Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-59).

Illuminated manuscript c.1470 is a highlight in Gloucestershire saleroom

Punch and Judy shows in Britain date back to as early as 1662 – recorded by Pepys – with origins in the charismatic 16th century Italian puppet Pulcinella.

A fine First World War silver presentation model of the Vickers FB5 or Gunbus made by Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Company (London 1916) was sold together with two related photographs plus a copied letter of provenance at Dominic Winter (20% buyer’s premium).