Wiltshire

Wiltshire shop marks return to the spotlight for Talisman boss but in a more relaxed mood.

Shipping in the older, literal sense of the word has played a vital role in coping with robust international demand during the current Covid-19 challenges, according to a Wiltshire business.

Quirky might be a way to describe Andrew Blackall’s antiques shop which is both Number 56 and 70 in the High Street, Corsham.

Every collector of glass petrol pump globes – or lenses as they are known in the US – hopes to own examples by the classic big brands: BP, Shell, Esso and the like.

This small watercolour by Irish artist Mildred Anne Butler (1858-1941) titled 'The Garden, Kilkenny' sold for an unexpected £2500 at Wessex Auction Rooms (17% buyer’s premium) in Chippenham.

The Rolex GMT-Master Ref 6542 is known to collectors as the ‘Pussy Galore’ as it was worn by Honor Blackman in Goldfinger. Made from 1954-59, it was replaced by the more commonly encountered GMT-Master Ref 1675.

The sale at Wessex Auction Rooms (17% buyer’s premium) in Chippenham on October 17 included this lot catalogued as ‘a retro banded glass decanter and glasses together with a set of similar shot glasses’. The estimate was just £15-25.

This lithographic poster design of Titanic and Olympic, c.1910-11, was withdrawn after the disaster of 1912 so there are only a handful in existence today. They would have been used in travel agents and White Star Line offices to advertise the liners.

Although a smaller affair than the much better-known Isle of Wight festival of the same year, the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music, held on June 27-28, 1970, at the Shepton Mallet showground, boasted perhaps the greatest UK music festival line-up of all time.

The response among Sixties regulars at a north London pub to the fly poster, below, advertising a gig by the High Numbers may well have been: The who?

Estimated at just £60-80, a rare Ericsson telephone sold for £10,500 (plus 17% buyer’s premium) at Wessex Auction Rooms in Chippenham.

Richard Edmonds (20% buyer’s premium) in Chippenham, Wiltshire, has sold some very rare British petrol pump globes in the past year – including a globe for the little-known brand Dominion (£13,000 in November).

Newcomers to the 44-dealer annual Wilton House Antiques Fair include the Vangelli Gallery in London with Asian decorative art, the West Sussex antique dealership Wakelin & Linfield which sells English and Continental furniture and Shine on Design, specialising in Art Deco pieces.

The first of the year’s two spring dates for the popular Vintage Bazaar held in the West Country will be on Saturday, March 14.

Edwardian silver table bells modelled as tortoises are not too hard to find but silver pigs are a much rarer beast. Accordingly, it was surprising to see two appear on two successive days at winter sales.