Bishop & Miller

The name of the Russian Arctic circle riverine port of Kholmogory derives ultimately from the Finnish Kalmomäki for ‘corpse hill’ or ‘cemetery’, but this is regarded as coincidental to its reputation for carved bonework.

A selection of wristwatch previews.

Two notable single-owner collections, augmented by items from the round of Oriental art sales, made spring a bumper crop in the specialist world of fans.

Suffolk auction house Bishop & Miller is holding its first-ever specialist Oriental Art and Antiques Sale on May 24.

On a lesser scale than the exceptional £35,000 George II chairs at Holloway’s sale, but standing out from the general run of brown furniture, were other encouraging results across the country in February.

Three years since he launched his Suffolk auction house Bishop & Miller, managing director Oliver Miller is fine-tuning his sales line-up.

Among the weapons in demand from collectors are Eastern arms and cased pistols, judging by recent auctions. Here we take a look at a few examples – and a specific arms and armour feature will appear in an upcoming issue.

Entered into the October 21 sale at Bishop & Miller (18% buyer’s premium) by a Suffolk vendor thinning out his collection, these carved boxwood nutcrackers, right, made an immediate impact on bidders at the Stowmarket rooms.

This focus on furniture kicks off with a royal link and three more cheers at summer sales for the furniture market which a number of auctioneers are saying shows modest signs of recovery.

Highly collectable in itself, this 1920s car showroom lightbox advertising sign, right, had extra appeal to one bidder at automobilia specialists Richard Edmonds’ (20% buyer’s premium) sale at Chippenham on June 16.