Lincolnshire

Dealers will be heading to Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire this month with three days of buying beckoning from the two ‘biggies’.

This 16in (39cm) mid-18th century saltglazed stoneware bottle has two relief moulded medallions to the shoulder.

Stamford Auction Rooms set a house record when a Chinese pottery tripod censer shot over its £500-800 estimate to bring £320,000.

Very much to current collecting taste is the 6½in (16.5cm) ‘peach bloom’ saucer dish shown here, offered by Batemans (20% buyer’s premium) on July 3.

Aficionados of later Chinese porcelain who happened to stumble on a lot of ‘collector’s plates’ at Unique Auctions (17.5% buyer’s premium) in Lincoln would have been excited to spot two fine artist-signed Republic period pieces.

Over the weekend of June 25-27, Lincolnshire dealer Hansord had planned to be in west London exhibiting at 'The Art and Antiques Fair Olympia'.

In these days of the internet search engine and the live bidding platform, it is reassuring to know that bargains are still out there.

Michael Mills and his family, the new owners of the now renamed Antiques & Retro Antiques Centre at Hemswell Cliff, launched their business on May 1.

Intended to keep servants warm in the draughty watches of day and night at the entrances to grand houses, this porter’s chair was bought at Christie’s in 1989 and used in the vendor’s living room ever since.

“Due to our digital presence with our website, social media and the live virtual shopping tours I have been conducting all over the world my skeleton team of 10 staff have been kept extremely busy.”

This 22-carat gold and enamel egg was the largest of a baker’s dozen made by Garrard in 1983 for a treasure hunt organised by Cadbury’s.

Until its sale last year, Newbold Pacey Hall had been the seat of the Little family since the house was built by William Little in c.1780-90.

Golding Young & Mawer is to offer the untouched collection of a Warwickshire country house at the end of the month.

This sailor’s walking cane below displays many elements of the scrimshander’s art: a whalebone shaft carved with spiral fluting, collars inlaid with shell from the hawksbill turtle and a handle carved as a dove from the tooth of a sperm whale.

The centuries-old Indonesian habit of chewing betel nut, the fruit of the reach palm, was quickly adopted by settlers from the Dutch East India Company who appreciated both its psychoactive properties and its importance as a local social ritual.

While Manchester United and early FA Cup match programmes often make the big money at auction, a group on offer at a West Sussex saleroom showed that far less famous names can also make the running.

Ken tanto, distinguished by double-edged blades, are one of the rarer styles of Japanese sword. Most were made as Buddhist ritual implements rather than weapons and are decorated accordingly.

Novelty inkwells such as this one modelled as a miniature six-bolt diving helmet and corselet were made by the Siebe Gorman works in Chessington, south-west London, as promotional giveaways or gifts to staff on employment milestones or retirement.