Wiltshire

Top-seller at Richard Edmonds’ (20% buyer’s premium) latest specialist motoring accessories sale was a hanging lightbox proclaiming the virtues of Pratt’s Perfection Spirit.

The complex precision electromechanical pendulum clocks made by William Hamilton-Shortt, engineer for the London & South Western Railway, and Frank Hope Jones, horologist of the Synchronome Company, were the most accurate pendulum clocks ever commercially produced.

Estimated at a token £100-200, a large twin fusee wall clock sold to an online bid of £2400 (plus premium) at Wessex Auction Rooms (17% buyer’s premium) in Chippenham.

A major price for an Old Master in the English regions came in Wiltshire last week when a still-life by Flemish painter Frans Snyders (1579-1657) caught the eye of multiple bidders.

Dealers’ collective now to be run by nearby garden antiques firm after owners retire.

Henry Aldridge & Son will offer items from the Skidmore collection at its May 18 sale – including these pieces of late 19th century Chinese ‘export’ silver.

With a documented provenance and inscribed by the maker Sébastien Garnier, Paris, 1747, a two-manual harpsichord was the top performer at the latest musical instruments sale held by Corsham, Bath, specialist Gardiner Houlgate (20% buyer’s premium).

Vintage millinery dealer Claire Powell and textiles dealer Liz van Hasselt are business partners in the long-running Vintage Bazaars in Wiltshire and Somerset.

In ATG No 2380 February 23 I wrote a piece on the annual antiques fair held at Wilton House in Wiltshire from Friday to Saturday, March 8-10. It is worth noting that the Provincial Booksellers’ Association (PBFA) is running an antiquarian and out-of-print book fair at the Michael Herbert Hall in the village of Wilton on Sunday, March 10.

More than 40 top dealers will set out their vetted stands at the annual long-running Wilton House Art and Antiques Fair.

Although ubiquitous for much of the 20th century, electrical masterclocks regulating other timepieces in schools, hospitals, government buildings and factories are as yet among the least researched aspects of horology.

Prices for the best British automobilia are slowly catching up with the huge sums regularly paid for advertising and promotional material in the US.

Modestly estimated staples of the once-booming Georgian furniture market can still bring pleasant surprises.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

Gardiner Houlgate in Wiltshire is dubbing its upcoming sale “the UK’s largest-ever auction of guitars”.