East of England

It’s not every day you see an auctioneer holding a 5ft 6in (1.67m) long sperm whale penis. Then again, it’s not every day that you see the sort of lots that are offered in Sworders’ Out of the Ordinary auction.

Sworders offers late 19th and 20th century styles reflecting the period zeitgeist.

Kate Lee started the popular biannual antiques street market in the Suffolk town of Beccles 10 years ago and has now taken over a local monthly antiques and collectors’ fair.

This one-off retirement day piece (below) is by glass-maker Richard Golding, founder of Okra Glass, who has been involved with the art for more than 30 years.

The names of two 17th century makers took these two lantern clocks way above estimates at Sworders’ (23% buyer’s premium) sale at Stansted Mountitchet. Both were from the Barbara Holliday collection that majored on Modern British art (see Art Market, ATG No 2377).

Husband-and-wife team Henrietta Lewis and Alan Knight, both keen antique and vintage collectors, opened the Diss Emporium in the pretty Norfolk town nine months ago.

Dated London 1679 in a Cheffins (22.5% buyer’s premium) sale of January 10 was a job lot that included four unframed Hogarth prints, a framed royal proclamation of 1800 relating to the production of grain and a “1679 broadside, printed for T.N. that is headed A List of the Parliament of Women”.

Modern British pictures by female artists made a major contribution to the bottom line at Sworders’ (23% buyer’s premium) dispersal of the Barbara Holliday Collection.

A single-owner collection, including significant works from the Modern British canon, sold for £541,200 at Sworders in Stansted Mountfitchet last week.

A letter of 1803 in which George III, writing to Lord Hawkesbury, effectively declares his intention to renew war on France, was at £9000 one of the more successful lots in a recent Cambridge sale that produced its fair share of surprise results.

Norfolk auction house Keys has marked the end of its 65th year in business by gaining independence from its estate agency parent company.

Produced by Raphael Tuck & Sons c.1900, ‘Puppies Playtime’ is one of a pair of greeting card see-saws that sold for £140 in the book and ephemera section of a December 15 sale held by Lacy Scott & Knight (20% buyer’s premium).

Four works sold in Essex auction could be part of Marks’ Eaton Hall commission.

A single-owner private collection, including significant works by artists from the Modern British canon, will be sold at Sworders in Stansted Mountfitchet on January 15.

Thompson’s Gallery in Aldeburgh uses its annual Christmas exhibition to showcase works by historic artists such as John Maclauchlan Milne (1885-1957), whose oil on canvas The Hay Cole (1920), below, is offered for £6750.

Two under-catalogued Sino-Tibetan bronzes illuminated the regional saleroom scene with multi-estimate sums in the final days of November.