Somerset

A lock of hair reputed to belong to Catherine Parr – Henry VIII’s sixth and final wife – drew a good deal of interest at Greenslade Taylor Hunt (19.5% buyer’s premium) in North Petherton, Somerset.

Eminent Georgian instrument maker George Adams (c.1709-72) first described his ‘variable’ microscope in 1771 in the fourth edition of his Micrographia Illastrata.

Looking after trade buyers can be key to the success of a fair.

The small town of Frome in Somerset features regularly in regional lists of the best places to live in the UK.

A typically enigmatic portrait by Gerald Leslie Brockhurst (1890-1978) attracted interest at a recent sale at Lawrences (25 buyer’s premium) of Crewkerne in Somerset.

This George II Palladian giltwood looking glass sold for £17,000 (estimate £2000-3000) at Lawrences (25% buyer’s premium) in Crewkerne on June 17.

Auction lots for a while now have demonstrated a factor which may be termed a ‘Malta premium’.

Ahead of a major two-day postcard collector festival, a dealer explains the draw of the most popular types

Japanned Jennens & Bettridge creation gains value as rare survivor in such good condition

Across the Georgian period a number of diminutive ‘bachelor’s’ teapots were produced that were probably intended for brewing saffron.

Crewkerne centre closes down amid tributes paid to a ‘professional, friendly bunch of traders’

The clasps (metal bars across the ribbons) signifying participation in particular actions are a key factor driving value when it comes to the Naval General Service medal 1793-1840 awarded retrospectively for Royal navy service.

Following equivalent sales in November 2024 and May 2025, Dore & Rees (25% buyer’s premium) in Frome was again offering Japanese objects at the end of last year from the wider collection of Asian works of art formed over more than half a century by Eva and Aubrey Sweet.

Serendipity had it that three jewels by the Guild and School of Handicraft emerged for sale across three UK salerooms on November 5-6.

A Stirling Moss (1929- 2020) race suit sold at a top-estimate £8000 came with an intriguing provenance.

The Gunter rule was designed to help with the mathematical calculations necessary in navigation.

Fleamarkets offer an endless variety of stock to draw in buyers and two ‘giants’ are coming up soon, one in Somerset, the other in London.

While few will welcome the news that Bonhams – the last of the major auction houses to hold regular sales Japanese works of art in London – is moving its department to Paris (ATG No 2690), there will be opportunities for UK salerooms that continue to plough this selective but occasionally fruitful furrow.