South-west England

Believed to be unique, this grimacing stoneware dog jar and lid from the Martin Brothers pottery is up for auction at Salisbury saleroom Woolley & Wallis on December 12.

Among the most desirable of all Royal Doulton Lambeth productions are those depicting scenes of flora and fauna from Australasia.

Included in the sale at Lawrences (22% buyer’s premium) of Crewkerne on October 11 was a brick from the Great Wall of China. It probably dated from the Ming period when Great Wall sections were widely built with fired clay bricks, adhered with lime mortar and sticky rice.

Cotswold auction house Moore Allen & Innocent is trialling a new operation to encourage more people to attend its saleroom.

Sally Knott has been running the biannual two-day Dorset Brocante for three years at two venues: in August at Deans Court, Wimborne, and in the autumn at Larmer Tree Gardens, near Salisbury.

Artist often overshadowed by husband William now comes into her own at auction.

Despite its size and various eras of occupation, Malta sustained a vibrant silver and gold-working tradition across several centuries.

Titled ‘In the District of Moka’, the hand-coloured litho plate shown here is one of 40 that make up a scarce folio of 1832, Thomas Bradshaw’s Views in Mauritius, or Isle of France…

News from Antiques on High, the antiques centre saved for the city of Oxford when it was bought by antique furniture dealer Vincent Page last year, alerted via a tweet about a story in ATG.

As soon as the devastating power of machine guns in the First World War became clear, the British Army abandoned its earlier policy of attaching a section of just two guns to each infantry battalion or cavalry regiment.

Although ubiquitous for much of the 20th century, electrical masterclocks regulating other timepieces in schools, hospitals, government buildings and factories are as yet among the least researched aspects of horology.

Woolley & Wallis celebrated its 10th £1m-plus lot last week, selling a portrait by Chinese contemporary artist Yang Fei Yun (b.1954) for £1.7m (plus premium). The sitter – the artist’s wife pictured in the early days of their marriage – was in Salisbury to watch the sale.

A Distinguished Flying Cross medal group offered at Stroud Auctions (18% buyer’s premium) on November 7-8 underlines the sometimes rudimentary nature of the embyonic early war in the air.

This classic First World war recruitment poster with the Old Lion of Britain calling on the Young Lions to answer the call to fight is estimated at £200-400 in Onslows’ poster auction on December 14.

A popular form of gift or memento to loved ones as troops left for the front was a ‘sweetheart brooch’.

The Hundred Days Offensive broke the back of German resistance in 1918 and by November the Allies were surging well beyond the once static Western Front.