South-west England

A collection of more than 400 corkscrews assembled over 40 years by an “old-school connoisseur” is to be auctioned at Henry Aldridge & Son in Devizes.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

This Tudor period gold finger ring with the initials RB was found by a detectorist on land to the west of Crewkerne in 2017.

Woolley & Wallis is currently selling across a number of sales a cache of items from the family of HG Murphy (1884-1939), whose Falcon Studio produced some of the finest English silver of the inter-war era.

An inscription reading “For Mrs Oliver, from Beatrix Potter – with kind regards & best wishes for Christmas 1901” was a welcome bonus on a copy of the first, privately printed edition of The Tale of Peter Rabbit.

From her Dorset cottage, artist and print-maker Rena Gardiner (1929-99) produced more than 40 guidebooks to historic places, buildings and the countryside, all of which she wrote, illustrated with drawings made directly onto litho plates and printed herself.

In our continuing series looking through the keyhole of ‘bricks and mortar’ shops and centres, ATG talks to Richard Payne- Withers, who runs Bridport Antiques with his wife Samantha.

Nearly 500 lots of Modern British and 20th century art went under the hammer at Woolley & Wallis (25/12% buyer’s premium) in Salisbury to notch up a total of £535,000 with three-quarters sold.

In the books, maps and prints supplement in ATG No 2341, Pom Harrington of Harrington Rare Books observed that millennials are now looking at books and thinking they are “cool”.

Country house car boots held in aid of charities are part of the summer season.

Stroud Auction Rooms has moved into a grade-II listed property in the Gloucestershire market town while securing a second site for future expansion.

As regimental silver, the Victorian centrepiece shown below qualified to be part of the Militaria, Coins & Medals sale at Lawrences (22% buyer’s premium) of Crewkerne and, as a memento of the gallant 9th (The Queen’s Royal) Lancers, it swept the field.

Written in red ink on four sheets, the original draft script of Ronnie Barker’s famous ‘Fork Handles’ TV sketch of 1976 has been sold for £28,000.

Results for Kakiemon and Meiji metalwork underline stronger market for Asia’s ‘second tier’

Barbara Hepworth’s 'The Aegean Suite' (1971), a series of lithographs based on her impressions of Greece, is currently on offer at Belgrave St Ives.