A Somerset client of Charterhouse of Sherborne who had been helping sort out her late father's possessions came across a stash of gold, jewellery and watches, mostly stored in little brown envelopes hidden at the bottom of a wardrobe. "He was a jeweller, and over the past year we have sold a number of damaged pieces he had probably put aside for repair, or a rainy day," says auctioneer Richard Bromell. "Nothing had prepared me for the huge number of gold coins, wedding rings, pieces of scrap gold and old watches that came in this time, and will sell for well over £10,000." Entered into Charterhouse's auction of silver, jewellery, watches and antiques on February 26 are some 50 gold sovereigns and half sovereigns and the four Queen Victoria Golden Jubilee 1887 gold specimen proof coins seen here – a £5, £2, sovereign and half sovereign, estimated at £1,500-£2,000.

Small silver boxes by Nathaniel Mills usually sell for £300-£600, but Alan Aldridge of Henry Aldridge and Son of Devizes has set his sights rather higher than that for this one at his sale a week today. It's all down to the inscription, attesting that it was presented to William Wyatt, surgeon, in recognition of his work among the poor of Plymouth during the "awful visitation of Malignant Cholera to the town" in 1832. That's enough to have Devon collectors sitting up and taking notice – but sadly for them, they are likely to face stiff opposition from Down Under, since Wyatt became a key figure in the early history of South Australia after he had emigrated there in 1837. Arriving in Adelaide in the February of that year, by August he was city coroner, and in the ensuing years he became a mighty figure in the administration of the province's schools, railways and much else besides, apart from being deeply involved in Aboriginal rights. One of his first acts on arriving was to buy some town lots at Adelaide's first land sale, and the considerable fortune that resulted from this is still being put to good use by the Wyatt Benevolent Institution, which has put tens of millions of pounds to good use since its founding father's death in 1881.

Silver has more than doubled in scrap value in the past year, an astonishing statistic which means that this tea set and matching tray now justify an estimate of £1,200-£1,800 at Clevedon Salerooms' quarterly specialist sale at Kenn Road on March 11. The work of Mappin and Webb and hallmarked for 1939, it's a classic inter-war design that would not look out of place in a Busby Berkeley movie. But silver tea sets of less distinguished pedigree are still making good money, and Clevedon will be valuing them – and any other antiques, for that matter – on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the last being the closing date for the March sale.

This finely painted Derby porcelain group from the late 18th century looks quite capable of soaring past the £1,000 mark at Tamlyn and Son's sale in Bridgwater on March 2, despite some very minor damage and a little flaking here and there. You might think a female shoe-shine is unusual – but guys, looking at the cut of this chap's jib, would you face a job that brought you in close proximity to him day by day?

The White Comrade, a painting of a wounded World War I soldier, is in Chorley's sale at Prinknash Abbey Park on February 25 with the proceeds – maybe £7,000-£10,000 – going to Help for Heroes, which does much to rehabilitate the wounded servicemen of today. It's by George Hillyard Swinstead (1860-1926), a prominent genre painter in late Victorian times and into the 20th century, and stems from a visit he made to Maudsley Hospital in London in World War I. (It's said he picked out two wounded soldiers to pose for the painting because of their good table manners). Swinstead was tapping into the various legends of ghostly or heavenly figures being seen on the battlefield, the most famous of which was the Angel of Mons, first sighted in a short story in a newspaper in September 1914. It was meant as fiction, pure and simple, but the way in which it comforted the bereaved and boosted morale prompted large numbers of people to want to believe it was true.

Dominic Winter's vintage photography sale at South Cerney on March 4 includes this iconic image by Alberto Korda of Fidel Castro entering Havana with his fellow revolutionary Camilo Cienfuegas on January 8, 1959. Korda was not a photo-journalist at that time, but very soon and for the next 10 years he was the Cuban leader's personal photographer, and responsible for the portrait of Che Guevara that has become one of the most famous photographs of all time. There are seven Korda photographs of Castro from 1959 and 1960 in the sale, including one of him with Ernest Hemingway. Signed and stamped by the photographer and printed by him in 2000, they carry estimates from £500 up to the £1,000-£1,500 expected for this one.

This disreputable looking pair are marked Meissen, but Duke's of Dorchester are dubious enough about that to wrap inverted commas around the word in their catalogue description. Still, they're beautifully made little chaps, and they've got the kind of look that few ceramic-collecting dog lovers will be able to resist. Both about nine inches high, they go into Thursday's sale with a duly flexible estimate of £600-£1,200.