A rare picture painted in India by Arthur William Devis (1762-1822) depicting a group of Bengali weavers was the subject of dramatic competition at Gorringe’s (25% buyer’s premium) spring fine art and antiques sale.

A group of portraits from the collection of the 3rd Earl of Liverpool, Charles Cecil Cope Jenkinson (1784-1851), will be offered at Gloucestershire saleroom Chorley’s next month.

A self-portrait by Sarah Biffin (c.1784-1850) has been acquired by the Museum of Somerset where it is now on display.

If you wanted to sum up the current state of the watercolours and works on paper sector in a single sentence, you might say something like ‘flatter than ever for general works but exceptional lots routinely generating strong interest’.

The highest price at auction for 12 years for Arthur Foord Hughes (1856-1934) came at Nottingham saleroom Mellors & Kirk (24% buyer’s premium) at the start of the year.

A mixture of leading artist, intriguing subject, ‘prominent’ background and perhaps a bit of speculation helped propel a portrait of an Indian figure to 36 times the top estimate.

Although the late antiques dealer Maurice ‘Dick’ Turpin (1928-2005) may have been better known for his expertise in furniture and works of art, he also had an eye for a painting.

A surge in websites selling ‘cold-cast bronzes’ – sometimes passing them off as original metal alloy sculptures – has led to calls for tighter rules to distinguish them from genuine works.

Roseberys’ sale of Modern British & 20th Century art on March 12 will include works from the collection of Bernard Sheridan (1927-2007).

A group of four pictures on offer in an Essex auction came from a vendor whose grandmother was part of the Fitzrovian set - the Bohemian group of artists and intellectuals centred around Charlotte Street in London, just north of Soho, in the 1920s-50s.

It is a good time to be selling works by Thomas Daniell (1749-1840).

Group of works by a maker who used mostly traditional techniques creates a secondary market test