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BY IVAN MACQUISTEN Droit de Suite, the much-feared extra levy on art sales, cannot now be introduced in the UK on January 1 next year.

BY IAN MCKAYWRITING about some of the more important items in his peerless private collection of atlases and geographies, the late Lord Wardington said of the Doria Atlas: “I just hope that it... will prove to be as good an investment in the future as I might have made in stocks and shares.”

Setting a new house record for Holloways of Banbury, this enigmatic alabaster urn shot to £170,000 (plus 15% buyer’s premium) on October 18.

BY ALEX CAPON NEW techniques for the scientific ‘fingerprinting’ of ceramics may soon become more practical for the trade to use.

There will be a rare chance to glimpse some of the long unseen areas of Beijing’s Forbidden City on November 28, when Henry Tzu Ng of the World Monuments Fund will deliver a lecture at the Royal Academy in conjunction with their forthcoming exhibition – China: The Three Emperors, 1662-1795.

When the Troika pottery in Newlyn closed its doors in 1983 its moulds were secured for posterity, not in a local museum or the collection of a Troika devotee but in a garden shed in Northumberland.

THE 20th century fashion and accessories sales at Christie’s South Kensington (20/12% buyer’s premium) are not the firm’s biggest money-spinners.

LAPADA have organised a free legal seminar for members in conjunction with the City law firm Withers to take place at 5.30pm on Wednesday, November 30 at the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, 1 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1.

Red tape continues to delay compensation payments in the Sotheby’s/Christie’s collusion case, despite assurances that they would be made by the end of September.

GOLD hit a 17-year high of £268.81 per 24 carat troy ounce as ATG went to press, Michael Bloomstein of Brighton reported.

A French court has upheld the right of Paris auction firm Artcurial to use the name F. Tajan in their full title Artcurial Briest-Le Fur-Poulain-F. Tajan.

SCIENTISTS in Australia have developed a new method of identifying of ancient Chinese ceramics which could play a major role in the battle against fakes.

Pictured right is a Yongzheng period (1723-1735) egg-yolk yellow ground ‘cranes’ bowl that was offered on the second day of a three-day sale conducted by Bamfords in Derby from September 13-15.

Places are still available for this October on the MA course in Decorative Arts and Historic Interiors, based at the Wallace Collection.

SOTHEBY’S Institute are backing a new web initiative to improve interest and knowledge in art and antiques.

POLICE are warning antiques dealers to look out for the two men, pictured left, who they believe are professional thieves targeting antiques centres and shops.

Auctioneers in Essex are being asked to exercise extra vigilence after Colchester auctioneers Reeman Dansie had an unwelcome visitor return to their salerooms on August 9.

Stained glass windows are not common fare in sales of English literature but the 2ft 8in (81cm) wide panel seen at Sotheby’s on July 12 merited inclusion on account of both its designer and its subject matter.

A much-publicised decision to devalue their stock by £10m, is the headline figure of the six-monthly accounts published by Partridge Fine Arts.

The well-known Worcestershire firm Andrew Grant are expected to close their fine art auction department.