Suffolk

Focus on two antiques street fairs/markets in Suffolk held in July and August.

An Edward Seago painting, The Thames at Henley, is among the highlights at the annual summer sale held at Thomson’s Gallery in Aldeburgh.

Coming fresh to market from a corn merchant’s shop, seven early/mid- 20th century enamel signs extolling Spratt’s pet food for dogs, cats and canaries attracted UK collectors to Bishop & Miller’s (20% buyer’s premium) Stowmarket sale on May 17.

A highlight of Suffolk House Antiques’ summer selling exhibition is a pair of 13th or 14th century English gargoyles.

Dealers Neil Honor and Jonathon Pegg run Catesbys, an interiors shop, from their home in the village of Exton, Rutland.

A classic SAS beige beret from the Second World War has sold for what is believed to be a record-breaking £17,500 hammer price.

Estimated at £400-600, this ebonised chiffonier sold for £45,800 at the Mander (24% buyer’s premium inc VAT) auction in Newton, Suffolk.

This cast-metal figure of a young girl with a bird on her arm, below, is offered on a composition base for £325 from English and Continental Antiques.

A significant collection of pictures by the Victorian watercolourist Albert Goodwin (1845-1932) was a near sell-out at auction in Suffolk and generated just under £120,000.

Some time in the early 1930s, the burghers of Norwich City Council appear to have been sufficiently cutting-edge as to purchase furniture by the designer destined to become one of the major names of 20th century design, Alvar Aalto (1898-1976).

With his father-in-law David Benden, Andrew Bott runs five annual busy antiques and vintage fairs at the town hall in Clare, Suffolk, which also has a number of antiques shops and galleries.

This headstone design of a female nude by the controversial sculptor Eric Gill (1882-1940) was deemed too risky to be realised when he designed it in 1933.

Among the most desirable of all needlework samplers are those associated with pupils at the Ackworth School, founded as a co-educational boarding school in 1779 by the Quaker physician John Fothergill and still thriving today.

Silver across five centuries caught the eye at provincial sales in February.

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.

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).

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.

Musicians from different generations provided sound results at Suffolk saleroom Bishop & Miller (19% buyer’s premium).

When Natalie Smith opened the Woodbridge Antiques Centre in the pretty Suffolk town 11 years ago, she said she was given a great piece of advice: never compromise on quality and presentation.

A portrait of Thomas Cobley Gent of Buttsford, Colebrooke (d.1844), is believed to portray ‘Old Uncle Tom Cobley’, from the tradition song Widecombe Fair, as a young boy.