South-east England

This very rare bear shown below made a very high price for such a small fellow – just 14cm (5½in) high.

Originally given as presents to infants, early dolls, rocking horses and even board games can now inspire passions among collectors far surpassing the delight of children on Christmas morning and far exceeding most doting parents’ budgets.

Among the most coveted of all the standard Chinese export porcelain designs is the so-called ‘Rockefeller’ pattern or Palace ware.

A new destination for antiques shopping in Arundel has opened at Merchants Hall.

An English provincial rarity, the 3½in (9cm) tall, c.1688 Norwich beaker below was a target for collectors at Henry Adams (20% buyer’s premium) of Chichester.

This limited-edition bronze, below, by Italian artist Lucio Fontana (1899-1968) made £24,000 at West Sussex saleroom Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium).

C&T Auctioneers of Kent is launching antiques and collectors sales, with its first taking place on April 3 next year.

A deluxe issue of 'Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens' signed by celebrated illustrator Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) is one of the attractions at The North Wall Arts Centre’s exhibition 'Once Upon a Time'.

This pair of Commonwealth silver plates, London 1645, bear the contemporaneous arms of the Puritan Bulstrode Whitelocke (1605-75).

This fine pair of Victorian silver six-branch candelabra sold to a United Arab Emirates bidder on thesaleroom.com for £13,000 at John Nicholson’s (24% buyer’s premium) in Haslemere, Surrey, on October 15.

When Alan Wardle’s niece searched online for family history she uncovered his father’s long-lost First World War presentation pocket watch coming up at auction.

By contrast to electrical rarities offered in Wiltshire also covered in this week's hammer highlights, the type of mid-19th century library clock shown below is probably the most popular item in the current horology market.

C&T Auctioneers’ (20% buyer’s premium) November 6 sale titled After the Great War Centenary also marked the final slice of a three-part offering of what specialist Matthew Tredwen called “one of the finest collections of First World War German militaria to have been sold at auction in the UK”.

Including, as it did, pieces from Alnwick Castle, an ‘attic sale’ based on the Duke of Northumberland’s home was guaranteed to generate more interest than many similarly titled auctions.

Such was the scale of the Great War that the Cameronians regiment alone raised 27 battalions from 1914-18.

A classic souvenir for Grand Tourists across the years, this pair of 19th century models of the temples of Vespasian and Castor and Pollux below was one of the stand-out lots at the Wallis & Wallis (20% buyer’s premium) four-day sale at Lewes.

A recent online sale that ran to just 35 lots and closed on October 25 offered a single-owner collection of works by the Victorian explorer and writer, Sir Richard Burton.