East of England

Suffolk sale includes further selection from Chapman collection – but sculpture brings big surprise

Two popular fairs are running in November and December in the Suffolk village of Long Melford which also offers three antiques businesses as an extra draw for buyers to part with their cash in a pre-Christmas splash.

A rare ceramic cat given by David Hockney (b.1937) to strangers who helped him as a student fetched a record price for one of the artist’s sculptural felines when it sold at Stacey’s in Chelmsford.

Cheffins of Cambridge is offering a marble bust of Lord Nelson, after Franz Thaller (1759-1817) and Matthias Ranson (fl. c.1800).

Two watercolours by Frank Algernon Stewart (1877-1945) were among the best performers in a collection of works amassed by two former gallery owners.

This pair of kesi chair covers woven with front-facing dragons against an apricot ground, date from the late Ming or early Qing dynasty period.

Dutch artist used a technique that was much admired in his homeland as well as Britain

The art of the Samurai comes to Essex firm Sworders on November 2.

In the summer of 1976, the British artist Sargy Mann (1937-2015) experienced a burst of creativity.

Group of paintings the artistic couple kept at their beloved manor house find new homes after auction

Sworders (25% buyer’s premium) timed online sale that closed on August 13 included this rare enamel by Ernestine Evans Mills (1871-1959).

Around 20 lots of delftware, mostly plates, tiles and chargers with modest estimates, featured in the sale of the Diana Steel collection.

Lighter Club of Great Britain holds fair open to both members and non-members

While the Dundee-born painter Catherine Read (1723-78) is considered the first Scottish women to work as a professional artist, a close second was Ann Forbes (1745-1834).

When 'Withnail and I' was released in 1987 it was a British film that seemed destined to disappear into obscurity.

Country house auction boasted not just on-the-premises appeal but Guinness and Duleep Singh connection

James Clowes (c.1643-1705), who was born in Astbury, Cheshire, became a Free Brother of The Clockmakers Company in 1671 – the same year as Thomas Tompion, Joseph Knibb, Daniel Quare and Joseph Windmills. He worked first in St Giles in the Fields and then at Saint Ann’s Blackfriars.

Inspired by Carlo Scarpa’s use of murrine glass in the 1930s and 1940s, Paolo Venini (1895-1959) designed a number of vessels in the 1950s that have become classics of post-war Italian design.

This Calcedonia glass turtle made by Murano master Dino Rosin comes for sale at Norfolk auction house Keys on November 22-24.

In what may have felt like a flashback to the past, when bidders actually attended day sales in person, the Elveden Hall auction held by Sworders was deemed a runaway success.