Auctions

The Victorians were used to seeing double. Not only did lesser artists such as Piffard (see above) paint more than one version of the same picture - the greats did, too. Christie's sale of Victorian pictures, Friday (10.30am) offers L'Orpheline by Tissot (1879), a simultaneously painted smaller version of the dark lady and child set against luminous gold chestnut leaves that made pounds 2,071,129 at Christie's New York in February 1993. Est pounds 900,000-pounds 1,300,000.

Another double in the same sale is Arthur Hughes's Ophelia (c1857), a smaller contemporary version of the half-moon shaped, pre-Raphaelite image of a garlanded, rather weedy Ophelia about to expire in a brook, now in Manchester City Art Gallery. Est pounds 250,000-pounds 350,000. As for Holman Hunt's memorable allegory of Christ as carpenter, The Shadow of Death (1874), Sotheby's, Wednesday (10.30am), this is his third version: est pounds 1.5m.

Both sales have pretty animal and genre pictures est at a couple of thousand pounds. Stannard's rose-entwined cottages seem to have fallen from fashion: a couple of thousand might buy one.

ALL EARS Christie's South Kensington's first sale of earrings, Tuesday (6pm), spans two centuries and has examples made from human hair, flies, beetles and lion claws. Some will have been attached through lobes held against a block of wood and pierced by an unsterilised needle. Take pounds 200 or so.

SLEEPERS The Wiener Werkstatte, founded in 1903, had rich patrons who insisted on designs with plenty of old-fashioned decoration. A bedroom wardrobe meticulously inlaid with exotic woods by Koloman Moser in 1904 has an est of pounds 200,000-pounds 250,000 at Sotheby's 'Vienna 1900' sale, Friday (10.30am). Among the cheapest lots, a metal wall light: pounds 2,000-pounds 3,000.

For less expensive European Secessionism, try Sotheby's sale of applied arts from 1880, Friday (11.15am). Victorian nude statues are at Christie's 19th-century sale, Thursday (10am) - near life-size specimens are est around pounds 10,000.

COUNTRYWIDE Manchester: Toys, gifts, Christmas cards etc, Sunday (12 noon). Area Auctions, 11 Blackfriars Road, Salford (061 834 8246).

Needham Market: Woodworking tools for coopers, coachmakers, shipwrights, joiners, wheelwrights and pattern makers etc, Friday (11am) at Limes Hotel, High Street. Tyrone Roberts (0449 722992).

Nottingham: Sport and cricket memorabilia, including British Open golf and 1936 Olympic Games autographs, Tuesday & Wednesday (12 noon), Bridge Cricket Ground. Vennett-Smith (0602 830541).

Bath: Property from estate of Siegfried Sassoon and from Heytesbury House, a Sassoon residence, Monday (11am) at Phillips, 1 Old King Street (0225 310609).

Newbury: Watches, boxes, miniatures and fountain pens among silver and jewellery, Wednesday (10am). Dreweatt & Neate, Donnington Priory (0635 31234).

Beccles: Furniture and effects, including Victorian items, Friday (10.30am).

Durrants, 10 New Market (0502 712122).

Milton Keynes: Alarm systems, Christmas sundries, computers, vehicles, Wednesday (9.45am). 9 Station Road, Woburn Sands. Hawbery King (081-343 7373).

FAIRS Contemporary Art Society Market: Royal Festival Hall Galleries, London, Tuesday-Sunday (071-821 5323). Bath Antique & Fine Art, Assembly Rooms, until tomorrow (Pugh; 0225 444 292). Chester Racecourse Antiques, Racecourse Pavilion, until tomorrow (Bailey; 0277 362662). Stonyhurst College Antiques, Lancashire; 30 dealers from 20 countries, pounds 2m worth of antiques (Bailey; 0278 722341).

Countrywide: Antiques Trade Gazette (071-930 4957) and Government Auction News (071-928 9001, hotline 0891 887700).