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THE chances of China allowing private trading in cultural objects have increased with the third round of debates on amending the law.

LONDON antiquarian books saleroom Bloomsbury Book Auctions are to sell a major library with no buyer’s premium – partially as a marketing exercise. Managing director Rupert Powell believes this is the first time since the premium was introduced in the 1970s that a British auction house has waived the levy.

THE word English is arguably superfluous in the title of a selling exhibition entitled The English Drawing Room, which runs from October 1 to 19 at the Mayfair showrooms of Windsor House Antiques.

Quality paintings have been extremely thin on the ground in the provinces in the last few weeks, but this Dorothea Sharp (1874-1955) oil did at least create a stir at the Leominster rooms of Brightwells (15% buyer’s premium) on August 29 when it climbed to £41,000 against an estimate of £3000-5000.

THERE was only one spectacular price but plenty of exceptional results at this vast Essex dispersal at Sworder's, September 10-11 (Buyer's premium: 15 per cent) – a reminder to the trade that quality goods may be hard to find but wider margins can be made from low-value material.

LATE, but interesting news arrives from Northumberland in the form of this 18th century bracket clock, right, by Horseman and Quare, which emerged from a Northumbrian farmhouse to be the star of the sale held by Jim Railton (15% buyer’s premium) at Newcastle Racecourse on July 13.

PHILLIPS, de Pury & Luxembourg have raised and restructured their buyer’s premiums.

THE Internet may well be gathering momentum as an effective marketing and selling tool for Herefordshire auctioneers Brightwells who now illustrate about a quarter of the catalogue entries on their website launched in February.

With the government still dithering over whether and when it should put a bill banning hunting with dogs in England to the vote in the House of Commons, it could hardly be a more ironic time for Sotheby's to be auctioning the only known portrait of the 'Father of Foxhunting' and the founder and first Master of the Quorn Hunt.

PARIS: The knock-on effects of auction reform mean it’s all change for the new season: France’s traditional auction scene has undergone a major overhaul, with commissaires-priseurs retaining their monopoly for court-order sales only, and obliged to create new commercial entities if they wish to stage other auctions.

WE are used to seeing one-piece, tabletsigned, Japanese ivories in good condition make anything from £800 up to several thousand pounds at auction. But somewhat more surprising, given the selective state of the general market, was the high selling rate of low-grade okimono, right, at the Clevedon Salerooms (15 per cent buyer’s premium) in Bristol on September 5.

ONE of the more unusual characters of the so-called ‘Golden Age’ of Danish art was Sally Henriques (1815-1886). Firstly, contrary to what the name might suggest, Sally was a man. Secondly he was Jewish. And thirdly he painted for just four years from 1841-45 before becoming – in a neat reversal of the career of Georges Braque – a house painter.

The Norfolk auctioneers Keys got a lot of media exposure in March when they took a bid of £22,000 for a collection of letters, cards, etc, written by the late Diana, Princess of Wales, to a Mrs Pendrey, a long-term employee and friend from her Althorp days, but in this sale another small selection of letters, apparently from the same source, failed to sell against an estimate of £7500-10,000.

A host of other events have been programmed to attract the international buyers expected in France for the Paris Biennale (September 20-29). These range from auctions – Christie’s sale of sculptures by Alberto Giacometti on September 28, or Prunier’s Haute Epoque sale in Louviers on September 22 – through small, specialist fairs (devoted to Asian Art, Decorative Arts and Tribal Art) – to gallery shows.

From the beaches of Newquay to the Kyle of Lochalsh, there was barely a corner of the British Isles not represented at Christie’s South Kensington’s sale of travel posters on September 12, but the appeal of the top ranked poster had more to do with sport than travel.

ORIENTAL: A large, single-owner eclectic Oriental gathering ranging from Chinese jades and scholars’ objects to Contemporary paintings, Japanese lacquerwares and Burmese woodcarving went under the hammer at Bonhams’ Bond Street rooms on September 10.

Auctioneers and dealers are asked to be on their guard against a man of Middle-Eastern origin signing cheques in the name of David Gedaneean on a closed account from Royal Bank of Scotland.

ORIENTAL: A large, single-owner eclectic Oriental gathering ranging from Chinese jades and scholars’ objects to Contemporary paintings, Japanese lacquerwares and Burmese woodcarving went under the hammer at Bonhams’ Bond Street rooms on September 10.

antiquestradegazette.com has received 1 million hits in a single week for the first time. The growth in site traffic to 1,200,000 hits in the week ending 8th September represents a significant jump over the previous week, which saw 848,000 hits.

Two D-type Jaguars, one shown here being used as a child’s plaything, the other an actual boy’s toy, both featured in Bonhams’ September 6 sale of sports cars and automobilia at Goodwood.