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TOTAL exports outside the European Union of art and antiques from the UK remained static in 2007, while total imports rose by seven per cent. However, the details show a more dramatic picture in some sectors, indicating, perhaps above all, the effect of the weak dollar against the pound.

Dreweatts are to begin holding sales again in Godalming, Surrey. The former Hamptons salerooms, acquired by The Fine Art Auction Group in 2005, have operated only as an origination and valuation office since January 2007 but will return to action on October 28 with a catalogue of silver and jewellery.

This rare medal by the Glasgow silversmith Robert Gray & Son from c.1807 commemorates a successful campaign of the previous year to resist imposition of duties on the local tobacco trade.

Asian Art in London 2008 has been extended by four days.

With Bernard Cotton's scholarly new book on Scottish Vernacular Furniture coming out soon, where better to promote the event than North of the Border?

A DEALER from Exeter has called on members of the trade to beware of opportunists conning sellers by swapping price labels when they purchase antiques.

Online retail giant Amazon.com have announced their intention to purchase AbeBooks, the most important internet marketplace for rare and out-of-print books.

A gold pattern Chinese coin picturing Chang Tso Lin (1875-1928) was dubbed 'one of the rarest coins in the world' by A.H. Baldwin & Sons and Ma Tak Wo Numismatic Co Ltd who offered it for sale in Hong Kong on August 28.

Whilst perhaps better known for selling reclaimed building materials, T.W. Gaze of Diss in Norfolk consistently attract lots of a more decorative nature in their five architectural sales each year. Their August 16 sale included this very fine quality early 18th century marble study of a boy holding aloft a bearded mask.

A retired Massachusetts lawyer has been found guilty of involvement in a major art theft that extends back three decades.

The largest ever retrospective exhibition of the work of popular Modern British painter Edward Seago (1910-1974) will be held from September 8-19 at the Bond Street dealers Colnaghi, who represented the artist in his heyday.

Markenfield Hall, a 14th century moated manor house near Ripon in Yorkshire, has won the new Historic Houses Association and Sotheby’s Restoration Award for 2008.

Atlanta-based WorthPoint, an online database and social network for antiques and collectibles, have announced its intent to acquire GoAntiques, the online buying and selling network.

Every year English Heritage's open days offer free access to thousands of properties that are usually closed to the public. This year’s opportunity runs from September 11 to 14, and from a list of 3500 places there are two of particular interest to students of Arts & Crafts, one in Devon, the other in Surrey.

A DIARY kept by a sailor in Nelson’s navy was offered for sale in a US auction earlier this month. Given that diaries kept by ordinary sailors are exceptionally rare, there was huge interest in this visually striking document from both sides of the Atlantic with institutions, the trade and private collectors vying for the journal.

Phillips de Pury are holding the first ever auction of hip hop jewellery on October 1 in New York. The sale, titled Hip Hop's Crown Jewels will offer some serious bling worn by some of the music movement's biggest stars.

Bonhams are to sell the contents of Great Brampton House, Herefordshire, home to the antiques business of long-standing dealer Lady Pidgeon. The sale will take place on October 1 onsite in the grounds of the estate and will feature over 700 lots of furniture, works of art, Asian ceramics and paintings.

The Reserve Bank of Australia are to challenge eBay on their decision to make PayPal mandatory on all sales listings. The RBA says it will “shortly be holding discussions with PayPal [an eBay subsidiary] with a view to seeking the removal of these rules”.

THE Standsted Mountfitchet saleroom Sworders are to sell the contents of Lancotbury Manor, a timber-framed Tudor manor house near Dunstable that was the former home of David Cochrane and Bernard Gulley.

Tiffany & Co have appealed over the ruling that eBay do not have to police their auction site for fakes before they are sold to unwitting buyers.