2016

A private US collector spent £2.48m at Christie’s, acquiring all four of the early William Shakespeare folios on offer in a specially-staged auction.

The British Antique Dealers’ Association (BADA) and the Antiquarian Booksellers Association (ABA) have announced plans to create a ‘memorandum of understanding’ between the two venerable trade bodies.

The owner of a new company operating High Road Auctions in Chiswick has told ATG he will be investing in the refurbishment of the premises and has already created escrow accounts to separate client’s money from day-to-day business expenses.

A rare Rolex Submariner took a record £160,000 plus buyer’s premium at a Gardiner Houlgate sale in Wiltshire on May 25.

Christie’s have announced that a major landscape by John Constable will be among the works on offer at their Defining British Art sale in London this summer.

The British Antique Dealers Association (BADA) is launching ‘BADA Voices,’ an oral history of the trade as the first of their 2018 centenary initiatives.

French art market associations have protested at environment minister Ségolène Royal’s plan to push for “a ban on any kind of ivory trade in France”.

Royal Museums Greenwich are attempting to raise £10m to buy a version of The Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I. The work currently belongs to descendants of Sir Francis Drake but the institution say that unless the required funds are raised, the painting “could be sold on the open market and even go overseas”.

A series of antique weapons were sold by Bonhams earlier this month missing their ivory elements after the items had been surrendered to the UK’s Border Force.

Classic car and motorcycle specialist H&H Classics is bringing in talent from outside the auction world to lead its next phase of development.

An early printed copy of the laws of rugby appeared at Rogers Jones in Cardiff as part of a themed sale titled Sweat, Mud & Blood. Auctioneer Ben Rogers Jones said: ”In 25 years of our business, it is the most valuable book we have sold and probably the smallest.”

Christie’s have admitted to “an honest and genuine mistake” by putting up for sale an ivory and kutch silver trophy that contravened CITES regulations.

Bonhams are launching into the internet-only auction arena with a timed sale of watches from a single-owner collection of a European nobleman.

Football Sport Auctions Limited, a Merseyside company specialising in auctioning football memorabilia, ceased trading in April owing large sums to a long list of consignors.

A dozen protesters dressed as elephants gathered outside Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury last week to demonstrate against the sale of ivory at the firm’s Asian art sale.

Although its launch was only announced in February, the ‘Modern Art Fair’ planned for September in London has been postponed, but will run in 2017.

A signed copy of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 promising freedom to all slaves in the rebel states will be offered at an upcoming Sotheby’s sale in New York.

Japanese works of art specialist Malcolm Fairley is the latest dealer forced to relocate while Crown Estates refurbishes the building they rent space in St James.

A private collection of Charles Dickens’ novels put together by a collector in the early 20th century went under the hammer in Cuttlestones' latest sale.

With the weekend fast approaching, ATG picks three antique and vintage fairs worth visiting if you’re up near the Yorkshire dales over the next two days.