Norfolk

This Christmas card sent by the royal family was offered among a small group of memorabilia at Keys (22% buyer’s premium) of Aylsham on March 29-31.

“A very rare and early item of cricketing history” is how Knights Sporting Auctions (20% buyer’s premium) describes the large silk handkerchief shown here.

A couple of late 19th or early 20th century works on paper by northern European artists caught the eyes of bidders recently, flying over lowly estimates

Up till now antiques dealer Philip Crosthwaite has belonged to a happy band of dealers who run their online businesses from home.

Focus on two contrasting sculptures from the same era by Feuchere and Boehm sold in recent auctions

On account of its extraordinary appearance, the Nock seven-barrelled flintlock volley gun has become something of an icon of warfare in the Age of Sail.

The cylindrical brush pot or bitong appears to have been introduced into the repertoire of Chinese ceramic forms in the late 1620s.

Two albums of photographs taken by fellow cricketer and friend pitch in at four-figure sum.

Most watercolours by Violet Esther Drury Clutterbuck (1869-1960) tend to fetch a few hundred pounds or less at auction.

An unframed painting offered at a Norfolk auction was bid to 2000 times its high estimate when bidders detected in it the hand of an Italian Old Master.

Collecting 18th century English porcelain is still a popular pursuit – but there’s no doubt that the core collecting audience is smaller than it once was.

Famille rose vases decorated with ‘Hundred Boys’ scenes are among the most commercial of all Qing ceramics.

What would appear to be a rare James Bond promotional poster proved the major attraction of a June 14 sale held by TW Gaze (18% buyer’s premium).

Bishop & Miller is expanding into Norfolk this autumn with a new saleroom and team.

Lancashire singer, comedian and actor George Formby (1904-61) performed to audiences around in the world in the 1930s-40s. Famous for his comical and occasionally double entendre-laden songs, he became Britain’s highest-paid entertainer at the time.

Innovative marketing ideas are part of the package for a Norfolk event

A new antiques shop opens in listed 18th century building following refurbishment

Bid to £2800 in a recent Norfolk sale was a detailed and now rare Map of the Parish of St Mary Abbotts, Kensington… dating from 1879.

Mandy Allen, owner of the Shirehall Plain Antiques Centre in the Norfolk town of Holt, is launching a third antiques and collectors’ fair in the county.

A great many works written and/or illustrated by Denys Watkins-Pitchford, or ‘BB’ as he was more briefly known, were offered in a December 8 sale.