T he reputation of Cotswold Arts and Crafts of 100 years ago took another substantial step forward this month when Duke's of Dorchester sold 12 assorted lots created by Ernest Gimson, who rank with Ernest and Sidney Barnsley at the forefront of the movement.

They came to the salerooms from the Dorset branch of the descendants of the seventh Earl Bathurst of Cirencester Park, who was a major patron of the craftsmen and let them work at Pinbury Park and Daneway House, two of his big estate houses near Sapperton.

All 12 lots had been commissioned by Bathurst from Gimson and had remained in continuous use by his family for more than a century.

"The time had come when they decided somebody else should enjoy them, and there was no shortage of interested parties," says auctioneer Matthew Denney.

A dozen telephone bidders competed, a mix of collectors and the specialist trade. A number of the major lots went to an enthusiast in Scotland, while Matthew would not be surprised if some of those that went to dealers end up in museums in America, where craft furniture is held in high esteem.

Two lots sold to the same anonymous buyer at £31,000 each, plus 19.5 per cent premium. The macassar ebony library table with satinwood and walnut chequer banding seen here had been estimated at £8,000-£15,000, while the superb stationery box, also in ebony but inlaid with mother-of-pearl and abalone flowers and animals, had a top estimate of £10,000.

The original designs for both pieces, dated 1904, survive in Cheltenham Museum and Art Gallery, which has a superb Cotswold Arts and Crafts collection but was not in the hunt for any of these lots.

"We have a very small acquisitions fund, and apply for grants from the V and A and Art Fund when we feel it's appropriate," says collections manager Helen Brown.

"It's only a year ago that, with their backing, we acquired a major piece by Gimson, a cabinet on stand in a more urban style than usual." This is indeed a piece of furniture from the very top drawer.

Designed at Daneway in about 1902, it had been bought direct from him by the family who were selling it – and the £45,000 they got for it presumably represented a good return on their outlay.

At the time, David Barrie, director of the Art Fund, said: "Gimson was best known for more rustic designs, but the rare opportunity to acquire such an elegant and sophisticated cabinet was one Cheltenham could not afford to miss. There's nothing like it in any other public collection in this country."

What the latest sale made clear is that Cheltenham and the rest of the Cotswolds are now competing in a world market for higher-end Arts and Crafts products, however locally they were made.

"The work of Cotswold craftsmen is part of an important international movement, that catches people's imagination wherever they live," says Matthew Denney at Duke's.

In other words, there's no room for regional sentiment – but then again, there never really was. Gimson and his like were well aware of their own worth, and from the start their "good citizens' furniture" was aimed at the good citizens with the deepest pockets.

He would doubtless have approved heartily of what happened in Dorchester this month.