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SOTHEBY'S are counting on their brand value and guarantees of quality to help them sell high value art and antiques on the sothebys.com website which went online on January 11.

UK: THE rare Schönner 75mm spirit fired train set of c.1902 which topped Christie's South Kensington's Trains Galore sale on December 21 at £10,000.

UK: Come Burns Night on January 25, someone will be paying homage to the Scottish poet with more than haggis and a dram.

UK: Giant bookcases from stately homes rarely appear at provincial auctions these days, so there was justifiable interest in this early 19th century breakfront example from dealers with showrooms large enough to accommodate its 18ft 51/2in by 9ft 51/2in (5.63 x 2.88m) proportions.

SOTHEBY'S are counting on being able to woo a whole new generation of young millionaires into buying art and antiques online at sothebys.com, their new Internet auction service. It launched last week with about half the 5000 lots drawn from Sotheby's vendors and half from 400 associate dealers.

FRANCE'S auction reform bill was given its first reading in the Assemblée Nationale (Lower House) on December 21/22.

UK: CHRISTIE’S South Kensington have also announced changes at the top with the appointment of Hugh Edmeades as chairman from January 1.

UK: THE William and Mary cabinet on stand which, because of cleaning and restoration went at £8500 at Ewbanks' Surrey sale on December 9.

UK: SHOWN here is a solitary ivory button, which found itself highlighting Sotheby's closing event of 1999.

UK: SEVEN telephone bidders swooped on this Victorian oak dining table, 6ft 6in by 3ft 7in (2.00 x 1.10m) offered with an estimate of £1800-2200 at Phillips Edinburgh on December 17.

UK: WHAT was it about this Bloor Derby cup which attracted attention from as far afield as America and Japan, when it was offered at the Derby salerooms of Neales on December 8?

UK: THE Scottish art market has been given a boost of confidence over the past few weeks by the strong performance of three sales in Edinburgh, that turned over £1.5m of antiques from Scottish sources.

UK: SILVER collectors could wait a long time for something so unusual to come onto the market.

THE Moor's Head Cup, a rare 17th century silver gilt sculptural marriage cup which topped Sotheby's sale of The Moritzburg Treasure from the Royal House of Saxony when it sold for £1.6m.

UK: COLLECTABLE 20th century ceramics continue to be the target of some elaborate fakes: among the more recent additions to the 'danger' list are the series of 'Royal Doulton' Union Jack bulldogs and a 'prototype' character jug.

FRANCE: CHRISTIE’S France will start the new Millennium by relocating from Rue Paul-Baudry to new premises on Avenue Matignon, just off the Champs-Elysées and some 500 yards from Sotheby’s base on Rue du Faubourg St-Honoré.

UK: CUSTOMS and Excise have closed a tax loophole leaving UK art dealers with a hefty VAT bill to pay in future.

UK: THE table was hotly contested by top London dealers at Ewbank’s rooms in Send, Surrey on December 9, 1999, with Fulham Road dealer Michael Lipitch emerging as the top bidder at £58,000.

EU: BRITAIN’S opponents on the droit de suite issue were in retreat last week with the emergence of telling evidence from France and Germany (the two main champions of artists’ resale rights) that the levy is both damaging to art markets and of little benefit to living artists.

UK: THE exceptional levels of demand recently seen for American pictures impacted on the London salerooms on the evening of December 14 when Bonhams achieved a record £1.4m for Richmond Hill in the Summer of 1862 by the Hudson River School painter Jasper Francis Cropsey (1823-1900).