East Midlands

Marked for Savage & Lyman, Montreal, c.1855-60, this silver tankard was awarded to British bare-knuckle boxer Tom Sayers.

A rare Royal Crown Derby teapot made to a design created by Salvador Dalí surfaced recently at Batemans (20% buyer’s premium) in Stamford.

The so-called Arundel Lions were once a well-known landmark in Sheffield.

Still a figure of glamour 450 years after her execution, Mary Queen of Scots was reputed to have embroidered the c.16th century fragment of bed curtain sold at Hansons (25% buyer’s premium) at Etwall on December 7.

Left out of the Christie’s sale 20 years ago, but far from remnant-bag pieces, the 11 early needlework items from the Sir Frederick Richmond collection offered at Gildings (20% buyer’s premium) attracted keen interest from UK collectors and specialist dealers.

New shop was inspired by lessons passed on from grandparents

Shepeard collection includes a drawing thought to be an unrecorded portrait of the artist

Frenchman Thibaut Bizeul, who sells online as Kingsbridge Antiques and Interiors near Matlock and with a predominantly trade warehouse in nearby Haddon Hall at Rowsley, is now back travelling to Europe for stock, despite the added paperwork and associated customs costs.

Antiques lovers are spoilt for choice in Derbyshire.

Dealer John Pullen organises antiques and collectors’ fairs in and around Lincolnshire.

Antiques centre tribute to its RAF base heritage is now ready after pandemic forced a delay

Amassed by the headmaster of one of Britain’s finest public schools, the Silk collection of Staffordshire portrait figures provides a fillip to an overlooked market

Most angles on the collecting spectrum were covered in Bamfords’ (24.75% buyer’s premium) three-day autumnal catalogue.

A Bamfords (20% buyer’s premium) sale included this 3¼in (34cm) tall Chelsea figure from the Red Anchor Senses set created by the Low Countries sculptor Joseph Willems (1710-66), in c.1755.

At a recent sale at Stamford Auction Rooms (20% buyer’s premium) in Lincolnshire this pair of mid-19th century Staffordshire red squirrels sold for a surprise £2000.

Derbyshire auction house Hansons (25% buyer’s premium) sold memorabilia this summer worn by two Manchester United favourites of different eras: George Best and David Beckham.

A humble table tennis bat bought at a car boot sale in Surrey for £3.50 served up a surprise at Hansons’ (25% buyer’s premium) London monthly auction on September 25.

Bought in 1952 by a semi-pro Skegness musician who played with East Coast seaside entertainers, this steel string guitar got a big show of hands at Louth auction house John Taylors (18% buyer’s premium).

Of such high quality that they justify the description ‘cabinet miniatures’, examples of a small group of silk and metal thread embroideries of Charles I can be seen in the V&A and Wallace Collection in London and in the New York Met.