Claire Rawle of Tamlyn and Son describes this Lehmann tinplate clockwork beetle as "frighteningly realistic", which perhaps explains why not as many people go on holiday to Burnham-on-Sea these days. Anyway, if you dare venture to her collectors' sale there on February 9, you will see this big fellow estimated at £80-£120 and in full working order, menacingly flexing his legs and wings. "No, honestly, he really does look like one of those huge maybugs that blunder around in spring," Claire insists.

Fast-forward to Devizes and insects of a rather more user-friendly sort, though to tell the truth, these pages' missus has always had a bit of a phobia about butterflies. This morning, Henry Aldridge and son are putting this striking inter-war Lalique charger under the hammer, and feel there's every reason to think it could go up into four figures.

In a strong section of 20th-century prints at Chorley's sale at Prinknash Abbey Park on Thursday, are four signed artist's proofs by Charles Johnson Payne, the "Snaffles" much beloved of field sport followers. Seen here is the most highly rated of the quartet, at £400-£600, The Biggest Walls in the Country, with its characteristically quirky footnote "and heaven help them as had to be building them up after us". Also on offer are The Timber Merchant (£200-£300), Merry England – "and worth a guinea a minute", £100-£150 – and Great Banks there was Below in the Fields, another comparative rarity estimated at £300-£500.

Lawrences' 2,500-lot sale in Crewkerne this coming week begins with silver and vertu on Monday, taking in everything from West Country spoons, c1580-1730, to a Karl Faberge cigarette case, c1908-1917 (£1,200-£1,500). On Tuesday, books, maps and manuscripts boast a fine album of watercolours by Lewis Kennedy, describing the proposed refurbishment of Trebartha in Cornwall (£5,000-£7,000), in 1815. On Wednesday, a selection of decorative antiques adds lustre to the weekly general sale, while on Thursday, a gold, enamel and diamond brooch by Jean Fouquet is expected to make £4,500-£5,500. Finally, Friday's sale of 280 lots of pictures takes in 140 original illustrations in 20 lots by William Heath Robinson, a delightfully dotty example of which is seen here. These range in estimate from £800-£8,000 – and £8,000 is also the top guide price on a fine French marquetry cabinet in ebony and kingwood in the concluding section of clocks, works of art and furniture. More curious is a longcase clock now set with a cuckoo clock from Charborough Park in Dorset; not easy to estimate, but Lawrences says £1,200-£1,500.

Charterhouse's auction in Sherborne on Friday includes a hand-written and drawn textbook from North Petherton School in 1810 – and it's a reminder that while today's computer-age kids take in a lot, country lads from Somerset knew a thing or too as well. "Education has evolved," says auctioneer Richard Bromell, "but the two textbooks we have in the sale are beautifully hand-written, exquisitely illustrated and quite technical. They have been consigned from a local family which can trace its roots back over centuries, and one has a finely-drawn title page stating it was compiled by J Grabham of North Petherton in 1810." In it are listed the Six Mechanic Powers – the lever, the wheel and axle, the pulley, the inclined plane, the wedge and the screw – while the second book lists trigonometrical definitions; these might sound like a means of torturing young minds 200 years ago, but they will be remembered with bemusement and bafflement by a good number of readers of these pages. It's an interesting little collection, but one that's estimated at no more than £60-£100.

Silverware from one of Wiltshire's most notorious and fabled houses is being sold by Woolley and Wallis in Salisbury on January 27. William Beckford, known as everything from "the wealthiest commoner in Britain" to "the Fool of Fonthill" was an eccentric so obsessed by his lineage that he incorporated the Beckford arms into almost everything in his houses. Fonthill Abbey, of course, was such a ridiculous folly that it collapsed less than 30 years after it had been built in 1796, but some of its contents have shown more staying power. Silver-gilt waiters in Woolley and Wallis's sale, with strapwork echoing the heraldic motifs of the Beckford arms and with the full arms underneath, echo a big sideboard dish now in the Victoria and Albert Museum and were made for Beckford by the same silversmith, William Burwash. He made a fine job of them – but you could probably divide their £15,000-£20,000 estimate by 10 if it were not for the famously bizarre figure who commissioned them.

The ceramics section at Smiths sale in Newent on Friday is highlighted by this super-rare Royal Doulton Charlie Chaplin jug, which is tipped to sell for £800-£1,200, despite the sad fact that it is lacking its bowler hat lid. This is one of the earliest and most valuable Doulton jugs, created in 1918, and examples in even less than perfect condition are very hard to come by. The sale is also rich in intriguing coins, including one from 16th-century Spain estimated at £600-£800. Various gold sovereigns and a golden half-guinea dated 1778 are expected to make £400-£600, while also highly rated are a James I sixpence dated 1603 (£180-£250) and two Charles II Maundy coins dated 1674 and 1683 (£150-£200). A 19th-century 14 carat gold pocket watch and fob chain looks like a £300-£400 lot in today's climate – and selling for a little more than that, if the saleroom is in a sporty mood, will be The Hat Trick, a penny arcade game in working order and complete with a supply of old pennies.