2012

Seldom appearing at auction, this very rare English, Longton Hall porcelain figure of Guanyin, c.1750 will be offered at Chorley’s June 28, ceramics-focused sale in Gloucestershire.

The fine pictures, silver and jewellery auction at Halls of Shrewsbury on June 27 will offer for sale the coronets and accompanying robes bought in the second quarter of the 19th century from Garrard & Co Ltd and worn by the Earl and Countess of Cavan.

This Chinese cloisonné enamel crane from the Qing Dynasty (18th-19th century) will be offered in Dreweatts’ Donnington Priory sale on June 27.

A 19th century vampire-slaying kit will be just one of the unusual pieces for sale at Tennants on June 22.

Jacobs & Hunt of Petersfield, in association with consultant John Cameron, will offer the collection of the late record-breaking aviator Peter Twiss at auction on June 22.

Pressure for better police cover is starting to pay off for Portobello antiques dealers – but they say there is still much to be done. The traders have been incensed by cuts that left just four officers to patrol the area in pairs on Saturdays despite a recent rise in robberies, and demanded action on extra patrols.

Worcester Porcelain Museum will be launching a new look by unveiling items never seen before at the 'Antiques for Everyone' fair in July.

COMMENT: As reported last week, the postcard campaign launched by art dealer Niall Fairhead in a bid to raise the threshold for the Artist's Resale Right has made progress, attracting more signatories for the online petition and eliciting answers from the Intellectual Property Office (IPO).

Four suspected thieves were due to appear in court in connection with a series of burglaries at six auction houses in the south of England last year.

A medieval Nottingham alabaster plaque prised away from a London church has been recovered after the appeal in ATG.

After 12 years of trading together, London clock dealers Nigel Raffety and Howard Walwyn of Raffety & Walwyn Ltd have announced that they will be going their separate ways this month.

COMMENT: More than 60,000 visitors on a summer Saturday, one of the most popular tourist spots in the UK, a name so recognised internationally that the local council wants to brand a Crossrail station after it... there are plenty of reasons to protect Portobello‘s antiques trade.

Sotheby’s latest sale of European Paintings in London proved a seminal event for the work of Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864-1916) as five paintings by the Danish painter topped the sale, led by a record price at auction for both the artist and any Danish work of art.

If you thought the sometimes dark art of auction marketing was a new phenomenon, think again. A revealing snapshot of the business from two centuries ago was provided by a rare piece of auction ephemera sold for £300 at the Cotswold Auction Company in Cheltenham on May 1.

Antiques Roadshow and Midlands auction house Gildings have conspired again to find a second William Burges brooch.

The annual Salvo Fair at Knebworth has been bounced off its long-established spot at the Hertfordshire estate this year by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers in concert. So organisers Thornton Kay and his daughter Ruby Hazael have moved their three-day show to the Stubbings Estate, just off the M4 at Maidenhead in the neighbouring county of Berkshire.

Close to 800 postcards in the Artist’s Resale Right campaign have already arrived at the Department of Culture, with more on the way.

A remarkable survivor from a landmark battle in British military history is coming up for sale at Thomas Del Mar in West Kensington on June 27.

He's an 18-year-old heart-throb in one of the world’s most popular boy bands. So it may surprise you a bit to know that Harry Styles of One Direction is also an antiques fan.

The dreaded experience of the inexperienced gallery-goer: having mustered the courage to ring the buzzer on the door, you’re greeted by a deathly silence as you nervously look at the works under the hawk-like gaze of a dealer. No prices and you’re too scared to ask. This is exactly the kind of image that the organisers of Master Paintings Week and Master Drawings London are trying to combat.