Staffordshire

Medals awarded to a gallant soldier who was gassed in the First World War were sold at auction just a few minutes’ walk from the house where he was born.

A police ledger sold more than triple its top estimate featured original mug shots and criminal records relating to 500 people including a woman accused of plotting to kill Prime Minister David Lloyd George in 1917.

Overseas interest in tribal art and Doulton Lambeth wares fuelled the higher prices at Cuttlestones’ (20% buyer’s premium) Penkridge sale but it was a new outbreak of cardomania which raised temperatures of collectors across England.

The jewellery team at Richard Winterton Auctioneers has expanded.

Sixteenth-century globes rarely appear on the market. So, Jim Spencer, Hansons’ works on paper specialist, had been amazed to encounter one at a valuation day in Bishton Hall, Staffordshire.

A Richard Winterton (20% buyer’s premium) sale in Lichfield included this 1973 Rolex Explorer II which sparked international interest.

A collection of Belleek porcelain totalled £7600 at Cuttlestones (20% buyer’s premium) on July 21.

A mount to an ‘Indian school’ ink wash offered by Cuttlestones in Penkridge on September 2 read simply 'G Tagore'.

Richard Winterton Auctioneers is expanding in Staffordshire with the opening of a new saleroom in Tamworth this autumn.

A single coffee can from the Baltic Service was among the highlights of Hansons’ (25% buyer’s premium) sale on June 9, selling to a collector at £2000.

This image of children swinging along a watch tower was part of Banksy’s ‘Walled Off’ project that relates to the West Bank barrier between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

“I’m counting the days,” said a happy Mike Collins, director of market operator Sherman & Waterman as he ticks off the reopening dates for his antiques and vintage markets, centre and car boot.

Life model depicted by Freud, Auerbach and even Lennon amassed her own art collection

A miniature by Henry Bone (1755-1834) depicting the American artist Benjamin West (1738-1820) was among the notable lots at the recent Hansons sale.

The latest Specialist Collectors’ Sale at Cuttlestones in Wolverhampton included a little bit of 20th century ceramics history.

English edition of the most famous scientific book of all finally ends up in German hands.

Ottoman bead carvers in Istanbul – makers of the garlands of beads known as tesbih and komboloi – were swift to appreciate the potential of Bakelite in c.1910.

Whisky big and small was a winner at Hansons (20% buyer’s premium) in Bishton Hall, Staffordshire.

Watch parts such as replacement dials, cases and hands from well-known models can add up to a lot of interest at auction, as recent results show.

The 'Indian Sporting' series is the most celebrated of all Spode blue and white transfer-prints. This multi-scene pattern (there are 17 different designs in total) is based on aquatints by Samuel Howitt from 'Oriental Field Sports, Wild Sports of the East' by Captain Thomas Williamson, published in 1807.