Somerset

The Tabby Cat by Mary Fedden is among the highlights in Somerset dealer Freya Mitton’s upcoming exhibition of British art.

“Our December event is always a busy one and we’ll be inside the Showering Pavilion and outside at the showground as usual”, said Sue Ede of SP Fairs.

A group of dealers will be putting themselves on show for once instead of displaying art and antiques.

Thirty-five handpicked textiles dealers from across the UK will be converging at the Cheese & Grain, an arts community venue in Frome, Somerset.

New to Asian Art in London this year is the Frome saleroom Dore & Rees, now owned by Asian art specialist Lee Young.

Updates from two events taking place in the south of England.

Books and periodicals from the John Warburton motoring library featured in a May 25 sale presented by Transport Collector Auctions & Lawrences (25% buyer’s premium) in the latter’s Crewkerne salerooms.

Returning to the same auction house after 20 years, a small hunting scene drew interest for the second time at Greenslade Taylor Hunt (19.5% buyer’s premium).

Two studies by the climber/artist/photographer are bought by London dealer Mitchell

Lee Young, Asian specialist and BBC Antiques Roadshow expert, has become the new owner of Frome saleroom Dore & Rees. He left his role as managing director at Duke’s last week.

This curious object is the forerunner of a million Christmas cracker prizes. Made in gold and silver, c.1830, the ‘ring’ chased with flowers includes a tiny pin hole which allows a jet of water to be squirted into the face of an unsuspecting admirer via a syringe-like plunger that can be concealed in the palm.

Whisky has been a booming market in recent years, says Simon Jones, associate director at Lawrences (25% buyer’s premium) of Crewkerne.

A cache of material related to the influential Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-61) and her family sold for close to £50,000 at Lawrences of Crewkerne.

Though best remembered for his work as an illustrator and printmaker, British artist Ethelbert White (1891-1972) was also a prolific painter of English landscapes.

Six months after the last Shepton Fleamarket was held at the Bath & West Showground in Somerset, the event returns on Sunday, August 16, with more than 250 stalls.

This late drawing by Karl Hofer (1878-1955), the German Expressionist painter who was branded a creator of ‘degenerate art’ by the Nazis, was one of dozens consigned by his family to Taunton saleroom Greenslade Taylor Hunt (19.5% buyer’s premium).

Although outwardly simple objects, cedar ‘bent corner’ chests, still made today by the indigenous people of the Pacific North West, employ a number of sophisticated woodworking techniques.

This pair of silver and enamel cufflinks with the royal cypher of George VI comes in a presentation box by Plante of Bury Street, London.