Summers Place Auctions

Figure dating from 1792 demonstrates the advantages of the influential artificial stone used

This rare pair of late 19th century terracotta eagles, each standing 2ft 2in (64cm) high have indistinct marks for Blanchard Terracotta London.

James Rylands, director and co-founder of Summers Place Auctions, is retiring after 44 years in the auction business

This monumental white marble frieze titled Nelson receiving the Spanish surrender after the Battle of St Vincent was created c.1826 by the English sculptor Edward Hodges Baily (1788-1867).

Estimated at £25,000-40,000, this 15th century Istrian marble wellhead in the late Gothic style sold for £110,000 at Summers Place Auctions (25/20% buyer’s premium) in West Sussex on March 29.

A hitherto unrecorded set of four late 17th or early 18th century marble seasons statues took £230,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) at Summers Place Auctions in West Sussex on March 29.

The original ‘Poohsticks’ bridge from AA Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh books is to return to the ‘Hundred Acre Wood’ after it was bought by Buckhurst Park estate owner Lord De La Warr.

Polymath Gerald Moore’s collection and his own artwork both attract bidders as Summers Place saleroom returns to action

An extraordinary group of garden statuary, unseen for decades, was offered for sale recently at Summers Place Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) in Billingshurst, West Sussex.

An extraordinary cache of garden statuary, unseen for decades, comes for sale at Summers Place Auctions next month.

The sale at garden statuary specialist Summers Place Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) in Billingshurst on March 24 (the day after lockdown) was among the first conducted under new government restrictions on social distancing.

Extinct for 65 million years, dinosaurs continue to rule the world of children visiting the National History Museum, of multi-million dollar movie makers – and of bidders at the Evolution Sales at Summers Place Auctions (25% buyer’s premium).

Always popular items, a Georgian lead cistern offered at Summers Place Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) was also rare in being circular. Usually they are rectangular, having stood against a wall connected to downpipes.

In market terms, ecclesiastical gates are not the subject of mass appeal but examples by major 19th century designers certainly had their devotees at two June sales.