Antiques World'spicks for the weeks ahead

What seems quite a modest estimate of £250-£350 rides on this decidedly Edwardian diamond, tourmaline and pearl pendant at Tamlyn and Son's sale in Bridgwater on December 8. It's one of any number of sparkly wares on offer with Christmas parties in mind – and all of a sudden, it doesn't seem too early to be talking of such matters, does it?

Charterhouse of Sherborne is in the middle of a run of auctions of planes, cars and trains, both real-life and miniature, and at its two-day collectors' sale on December 15 and 16, it will be the turn of some 100 lots of model locomotives and rolling stock, along with a big selection of die-cast vehicles. Seen here, in one lot, are two boxed Hornby Dublo locos from the Fifties. The former GWR Castle Class Bristol Castle, which operated from 1924 to 1964, was named Windsor Castle up until early 1952, while the streamlined West Country Class Dorchester was one of those ex-Southern Railways Light Pacifics once known to nasty little trainspotters as "Spam Cans". Estimate: £200-£300.

Angular cats like this – part Cubist, part Deco, part pure Louis Wain – can change hands at £8,000-plus, though the condition of this one suggests that £3,000-£4,000 might be nearer the mark at City Auctioneering Bristol's sale at Easter Compton on Wednesday. Just over 5ins tall, it dates from about 1914, when Wain was still open to outside influences and not submerged in cat-induced madness; in recent years it has been used as a pen holder, but doubtless those days are through. Also in the sale is a selection of fine French wine, including Chateaux Carruades de Lafite Pauillac 2005, D'Issan Grand Cru Margeaux 2005, Pichon-Longueville Pauillac 2005, Pavie Macquin Grand Cru Saint Emilion 2005 and Gruaud Larose Grand Cru Saint Julien 2005. Port takes in Taylor's 1960 and 1977 and Graham's 1977, while a collection of 100-plus Ashton Drake collectors' dolls and a number of traditional hand-crafted Somerset stone fireplaces will also catch the eye.

These two very rare Clarice Cliff vases are to be offered at Lawrences of Crewkerne's January fine art sale. They have come in from a Taunton vendor, who says they were originally given as a wedding gift from a worker at the Cliff factory in the Thirties, and this "insider" provenance might explain their almost unheard-of pink background. The Latona Tree pattern is by no means unknown, but almost always it is on a white, blue or brown ground. "They were made at a time when Clarice was experimenting with Latona glazes," says Lawrences' Simon Jones. "If the wedding gift theory is correct, they were probably never meant for production, and could even be unique." There is a little damage to both vases, but the feeling is that their estimate of £200-£400 could be left a long way behind.

Antiques of tomorrow: they're around everywhere at the moment, as the West Country's skilled craftspeople lay their finest out before us in the run-up to Christmas. Keep an eye open for what's going on near you, with your way lit, perhaps, by this triple candleholder by the Somerset cabinetmaker Richard Fairbrother, who is opening his gallery today and tomorrow to showcase his latest work as well as other unusual Christmas gifts. Open 10am-6pm today and tomorrow, it can be found two minutes off the A38 at Greystone Yard, Notting Hill Way, Weare, Axbridge BS26 2JU.

According to Simon Chorley and John Harvey, who know these things, the going rate for a 1712 first edition of Sir Robert Atkyns' The Ancient and Present State of Glostershire is now between £4,000 and £6,000. That's the estimate at Chorley's sale at Prinknash Park on December 10, when also on offer is the volume that's always mentioned in the same breath as Atkyns, Samuel Rudder's New History of Gloucestershire of 1779. Same breath, but at £400-£600, hardly the same price bracket – for two very good reasons. One is that the printing press burned down shortly after publication of the Atkyns, destroying both original copies and the plates. But of far more importance to the value of the book are the 65 engravings of the county's grandest houses and estates of 200 years ago by the Dutch draughtsman Johannes Kip. These are a wonderful account, as long as we don't take them too literally, as their primary aim was to flatter and please the properties' owners, and reflect how they wished their homes to be seen, rather than as they actually were. "Look, Kip, old boy, we plan a six-acre formal garden where that cow meadow is now – be a good chap and pop one in, will you?" And then there was his knack of making the subject property as grand as Hampton Court, with anything else in the vicinity, no matter how grand, looking like the hovel on the heath. A fascinating book, on so many levels.

These Victorian silver pepperettes by Richards and Brown, London 1871, carry an estimate of £600-£800 at Dreweatts 1759 Bristol's jewellery and silver sale at Apsley Road, Clifton on December 8. Another eyecatcher at the sale, with an estimate of £400-£600, is a ruby and diamond oval cluster ring just right for the Christmas market. Which is very much where we started...