Cheltenham

It is often said that the mark of a good illustrator is that their work is instantly recognisable.

This Jin dynasty Cizhou-type double gourd vase comes for sale at Mallams in Cheltenham on November 8 with an estimate of £2000-3000.

A 1954 edition of 'The Mousetrap' play script offered on June 6 at the Cotswold Auction Company (24% buyer’s premium) was inscribed by the author “For James Grout on our 6th birthday, Agatha Christie”.

The Qing hexagonal form blue and white jardinière shown here is a type used to grow flowers or bonsai at the Qing court.

This special edition of A Japanese Collection (1898) by Michael Tomkinson (1841-1921) is one of the first 25 copies printed on Indian paper and is signed and dedicated by the author to his daughter Dora.

The Asian & Islamic Art sale at Mallams in Cheltenham on May 24 includes items from the collection of auctioneer Paul Whitfield (1942–2018).

By the end of the First World War it has been estimated that over eight million horses had died.

A large reticulated ‘dragon and phoenix’ censer came for sale at Mallams’ (25% buyer’s premium) in Cheltenham from a Herefordshire vendor whose family had lived in Shanghai in the 1930s.

The Higgs Deliverer ‘rake iron’ club was an attempt to solve a tricky golf problem: how to hit the ball out of sand, high grass or similar terrain.

While traditional antique furniture prices are still relatively cheap, contemporary and mid-20th century material continues to be an expanding market.

Although catalogued as Kangxi period, an ovoid blue and white vase offered by Stacey’s (20% buyer’s premium) on September 20 is a Transitional piece.

This typically wintry scene by the prolific artist Rowland Hilder (1905-93) was the star lot of Mallams’ (25% buyer’s premium) Modern Living sale.

A collection of portraits from a descendant of the Hicks Beach family of Witcombe Park will be offered at Chorley’s on September 21-22.

Mainland Chinese buyers bidding on jade, porcelain, wooden and textile offerings dominated the leader board at an Asian & Islamic sale at Cheltenham.

Sailor’s sweethearts or valentines were once thought to have been made by sailors as love tokens during their long trips away from home.

Chorley’s (22.5% buyer’s premium) Fine Art & Antiques auction was topped at £28,000 by a 17th century Mughal ivory inlaid rosewood table cabinet.

Among a flurry of historical portraits coming to the regional market at the start of this year, arguably the most notable appeared at Oxfordshire saleroom JS Fine Art (20% buyer’s premium).

These days, marketing a doll as Sindy’s saucy sister would be problematic. And the less said about outfits titled Hockey Honey or School Days, the better.

The outstanding jade offered in the regions in the October-December period was this pale celadon teapot and cover that came for sale at Duke’s in Dorchester on December 8 from a Dutch private collection where it had been since the 1980s.

This 7½in (19cm) Japanese wood netsuke shows the standing figure of Ashinaga with his arms outstretched.