"English School, 18th century" looks to be by Johann Baptist Bouttats

Jackson's, from the United States, sells on 19 November 2019 an "English School, 18th century" naval scene, estimated at $300 to $500.

The painting is "Indistinguishably signed and dated 1745 lower left", but luckily they provide a decent image of the siganture and date.

It looks to me as if it says "J. B. Bo...tt... 174 (1?)". The most logical name is probably Johann Baptiste Bouttats (1680s-1743), last major painter from the Bouttats family, who migrated to England (Hull) in the 1720s. 

Different marine scenes from his hand are known. While they are comparable in general, they seem to be generally more detailed; considering that this work comes from his very final years, while his better works were ten or more years older, this may be understandable. 

As a signed, attractive work (that needs cleaning)  by a known artist, it should be worth 10 times the estimate probably.

Wonderful "Reynard the Fox" trial

Horta, from Belgium, sells on 12 November 2018 a "Flemish School, 17th century" Trial of the animals, estimated at 5,000 to 7,000 Euro.

The work has an old attribution to (Jan) Van Kessel and (Roelant) Savery.

In general, paintings from medieval, non-religious stories are rare. Normally one gets either Biblical or mythological stories, or more general allegories not related to early "novels" (if one may call them that).

Sotheby's sold in 2010 2 works by Jan Brueghel II with scenes from the same story, and with very similar dimensions. Together they fetched £91,000.

But nearly the same composition has been sold as the work of "Circle of Frederik Bouttats" at Christie's Amsterdam in 2011, for 10,625 Euro. Some animals have been added or removed, and I'm not certain that the works are by the same hand, even though they clearly come from the same workshop.

The way small things like eyes or fur are treated is not identical, but which one is better is a matter of taste more than real difference in quality. The version for sale was by a Francophone artist and/or intended for a Francophone audience, as the book in the hands of Reynard reads "Pauvre", French for "poor". The text in the other version is different, but I can't decipher it.

I like the one for sale better than the Christie's one though, so in my view the estimate is clearly too low, and this should fetch 12,000 to 15,000 Euro.

UPDATE: sold for 60,000 Euro!

UPDATE 2: Acquired, as could be expected, by the Phoebus Foundation. As described in a lengthy article about these paintings from Rik Van Daele, one of the most erudite Reynaert specialists in Flanders. And they use this blog post and quote me, which is nice! https://www.reynaertgenootschap.be/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Artikels-Rik-Van-Daele.pdf

"Jacob Boutats" is manner or circle of Jan Brueghel II

Hotel de Ventes de Monte Carlo, in Monaco, sells on 28 April 2018 a "Jacob Boutats" Bird concert, a small (27 by 37 cm) oil on panel estimated at 20,000 to 30,000 Euro.

The RDK lists three other (even smaller) versions of the same composition, but attributes them to "Circle of Jan Brueghel II" (1, 2, 3). Among the six works by Jacob Bouttats they list are no really similar works, but all have Brueghel-like (or Roelant Savery-like) animals in them in scenes from Paradise or Orpheus. I can find one other copy of this work (much larger at 64 by 52 cm) which was sold as "Circle of Bouttats" in 1997, but without further indications this seems rather speculative.

This panel was offered at Artcurial in 2013 as "Flemish School, early 17th century, workshop of Jan Brueghel". The estimate seems about right, even though this is a good but not the best copy of this work.

UPDATE: now on 26 September 2019 for sale at Hampel, Germany, with the same estimate and "attributed to Jacob Bouttats".