ANTIQUES collectors looking to avoid the New Year sales scrum will find a more pleasant shopping experience awaiting at the first Moore Allen & Innocent auction of the year, where more than 500 lots await bidders with Christmas money to spend.

Among the most noteworthy lots at the Friday, January 6, auction are a large collection of horse brasses, dating from the early 19th to mid 20th century.

The 350 commemorative brasses - many attached to leather martingales – celebrate notable figures and occasions of the time, from royal coronations to events like the Great Exhibition of 1851.

The life of president Abraham Lincoln is celebrated in one brass, while souvenir of Chipperfield’s Circus features a tiger riding atop an elephant, and is identical to a brass which forms part of the Victoria and Albert Museum collection.

The rarest brass is not brass at all, but rather cast in lead. It features an image of Neptune on one side and two bears dancing around a pole on the reverse. The brasses will be sold over three lots, with each lot carrying an estimate of £200 to £300.

To see horse brasses in situ, one can study the work of landscape artist Cyril Dickins.

Four oil paintings, each of which carry an estimate of £50 to £80, feature working shire and dray horses, resplendent with brasses, delivering beer to pubs, pulling ploughs, or competing in ploughing matches.

The work of another British livestock artist, John Stinton (1854 to 1856) can be found on a pair of circa 1912 Royal Worcester vases.

The vases, which feature cattle in a landscape, carry an estimate of £300 to £500.

Also in the ceramics section, a full set of eight Beswick Winnie the Pooh figurines, produced under licence from Disney and featuring Pooh, Christopher Robin, Tigger, Eeyore, Piglet, Kanga, Rabbit and Owl. A bid of £200 to £300 should secure the lot.

For anyone who lost a glass or two during the Christmas revelries, a large suite of Waterford Crystal glasses – including wine and liquor glasses, champagne saucers and tumblers, commands an estimate of £300 to £500, while for bibliophiles whose collections grew on Christmas morning, four 20th century glass-fronted Globe Wernicke bookcases carry an estimate of £100 to £150 each.

Finally, for anyone who got a puppy for Christmas, how about an unusually deep dog bowl designed by Spratts for pups with long ears?

The conical design prevents ears from drooping into the food – a great example of Victorian ingenuity.

A bid of £100 to £150 should secure the lot.

For a full auction catalogue, log on to mooreallen.co.uk