South-west England

The Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas at Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury on February 19 included this striking tribal mask from central Africa.

Two Cartier brooches commissioned by Sir Stephen Courtauld for his wife have gone on display at Eltham Palace, eight months after they were sold at auction by Dreweatts in Newbury.

A rare visitor to the auction room came in the form of this pocket-sized Victorian sand picture book.

Estimated at £200-300 but sold for £4200 at Charterhouse (25% buyer’s premium) in Sherborne, Dorset, were two design books from the Royal Doulton workshop floor.

Sir Bruno Welby (b.1928), a member of both the English Ceramic Circle and the French Porcelain Society, has bought European porcelain since the 1950s.

The Sir Bruno Welby collection (see main story in this edition) sold at Woolley & Wallis shone the spotlight on two familiar names from the early English porcelain literature: Jefferyes Hamett O’Neale (1719/20-97) and Fidelle Duvivier (1740-after 1796).

Mikaela and Roger Boon’s well-supported biannual vintage fair in the village of Wilton, near Salisbury, has its first outing of the year on Saturday, March 1, in the Michael Herbert Hall.

A deceased estate in Dorset that yielded a notable collection of Old Masters provided a fillip to Lawrences (25% buyer’s premium) of Crewkerne’s latest mixed-category auction.

The Arabian Knights model of Princess Badoura is best known as the largest figure from the Royal Doulton HN series.

A signed copy of Novello’s original octavo edition of Edward Elgar’s The Kingdom appeared in Plymouth Auction Rooms’ (20% buyer’s premium) New Year’s Day Collectors timed online sale.

The Royal Copenhagen ‘Danish National Costumes’ series designed by sculptor and modeller Carl Martin-Hansen was produced between 1906-25.

Even when set against the standards of royal pageantry, the crowning of George IV at Westminster Abbey on July 19, 1821, was a lavish affair.

On February 6 Woolley & Wallis is selling the Sir Bruno Welby collection of European porcelain. Estimates across 350 lots cover an affordable range from £50 to £2500 with the group as a whole expected to fetch around £100,000.