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ONLINE auction giant eBay have announced a record 59 per cent increase in turnover for the first quarter of 2004.

TWO albums of 19th century Chinese photographs assembled by a British diplomat sold for £5200 in a general antiques sale held by Sworders at Stansted Mountfitchet, on March 30.

As in other markets, that of samplers has its peculiarities. While condition and craftsmanship – or rather craftsgirlship – are important they are not always paramount.

FOR some years now the country’s top glass fixture, the next bi-annual National Glass Collectors Fair will be held at the Heritage Motor Centre, near Gaydon in Warwickshire this Sunday, May 9.

KENSINGTON Church Street will be a worthwhile call for those interested in brushing up their ceramics scholarship over the next week or so, with two specialist dealers holding non-selling exhibitions aimed at furthering our knowledge.

ANOTHER 19th century doll’s house was among the more collectable entries at Mallams Cheltenham's (15% buyer's premium) March 25 sale. Previously relegated to the outbuilding of a Welsh house, the Victorian “brick” villa, complete with its original stand, was a large size at 3ft 5in by 4ft 10in (1.04m x1.47m).

Valued at £8000-12,000 in a Sotheby’s sale of May 13 is a copy of the 1787, first and only edition of Alexander Shaw’s Catalogue of different specimens of cloth collected in the three voyages of Captain Cook...

Sold at £5500 in a general antiques sale held by Michael J. Bowman of Newton Abbot on March 13 was a group of six manuscript poems written by Ted Hughes for his neighbour Ronald Yates.

INTENSE competition between three bidders on the telephone and two in the room pushed the watercolours of Edward Bawden (1903-1989) into new financial territory when this signed and dated, 1956 composition, right, House at Ironbridge, fetched £10,500 at the Sudbury, Suffolk rooms of Olivers (12.5% buyer’s premium) on April 1.

ANTIQUE folk art specialist Robert Young’s distinctive stock has found favour both here and in America, very often at fairs, but from May 14 to 22 you can see some choice pieces displayed on his home patch at the fifth annual exhibition at his showrooms at 68 Battersea Bridge Road, London SW11.

JACOBEAN London was enthralled by the Overbury Murder case and the subsequent trial of the conspirators.

CHARLES Baldwin’s stock-in-trade as a porcelain artist was swans in flight, but the celebrated Royal Worcester painter did occasionally apply his meticulous technique to other subjects including mammals and other birds. The sale held by Philip Laney (10% buyer’s premium) at the Malvern Auction Centre on April 6 included the impressive vase, top right, decorated by Baldwin with goldfinches.

JOHN Varley Senior (1778-1842) was one of the most prolific watercolourists of his generation, exhibiting no fewer than 700 works at the Old Water Colour Society between 1805 and 1842.

WHEN a small, unattributed Old Master painting sells at £30,000 in the provinces the S-word usually gets plenty of use.

FOR many collectors, the finest quality 18th century Qing dynasty mark and period porcelain is the holy grail of Chinese ceramics, but connoisseurs have long revered the understated aesthetic and classic simplicity of the Song dynasty’s (960-1279AD) monochrome glazed ceramics.

SATISFYING though Woolley & Wallis’s sale undoubtedly was, the general run of fine silver is still bringing little more than the prices it was achieving a decade and more back.

SINCE moving to premises in Kennetholme, Midgham, Berkshire’s Specialist Auction Services (15% buyer’s premium) have acquired a reputation for selling not just commemoratives and pot lids but also collectable toys.

ACQUIRED for £52,000 by the Australian businessman John Schaeffer at Christie’s, London in June 1996, this striking oil on canvas, right, A Dancing Athlete with an Olive Branch, by Frederic Leighton (1830-1896), comes under the hammer again on May 15.

LAW firm Withers, who specialise in advising the art and antiques trade, say new .eu domains coming in this year should be registered quickly to boost and defend business.

TWO specialist services in the world of tracking stolen art have joined forces to launch a new recovery service.