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GERMANY: Round about the year 286AD times were very interesting in Britannia. Some small documents of this small and little known facet of British history appeared in the Lanz (15% buyer’s premium) sale in Munich on May 27.

Allen’s Authentication of Ancient Chinese Bronzes, by Anthony J. Allen, published by Allen’s Enterprises Ltd of Takapuna, Auckland, New Zealand, www.allens.antiques.com and distributed in the UK by David Aldous-Cook: Reference Books on Antiques, Sutton, Surrey. Tel/fax: 0208 642 4842. ISBN 0473080451 £60hb

A zeal for collecting in an age of double glazing has created a strong market for pottery window rests, which have been freed from the domestic drudgery of keeping sash windows open and elevated to the mantelpiece as decorative works of art in their own rights.

With their lively if somewhat comic subject matter, these so-called ‘Scotsmen’ famille rose plates, 18th century, always receive a warm welcome. But the comic depiction of this kilted couple of the 42nd Foot Regiment belies the fate that lay in store for them.

Concerns that turmoil in the world’s stock markets would spill over into London’s June round of Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary sales proved to be largely unfounded.

Christie’s King Street, may not have had their best ever sale but they did have the week’s most admired snuff bottle: a black and white jade inscribed example, signed Shixiang, 1740-1850.

Sotheby’s Olympia clinched the week’s loftiest price for an Asian work when a mighty £480,000 was placed by a Japanese telephone buyer probably bidding against the reserve for a complete set of Ando Hiroshige’s (1797-1858) 120 woodblock prints: The One Hundred Famous Views of Edo.

JUST as the Office of Fair Trading seemed to be making progress over the misleading marketing tactics of the Barcelona-based European City Guide, another similar operation has struck again.

AN MP who has described himself as a lifelong attender of auctions has told Parliament he wants to introduce a Bill that would outlaw the buyer’s premium.

UK: THE trade have issued a warning to colleagues about a criminal gang operating in the Pimlico Road area who are known to target antique shops.

A flat annual user fee of about £1100, private access to fresh-to-market high quality pieces, and no buyer’s premiums to pay. A pipedream? Not according to new venture Whozbuyingwhat.com, an antiques Website that is attempting to introduce a new concept in trading in the market.

A veteran of golfing sales, Bob Gowland has been involved in this specialist field for the past 30 years. With stints at both Phillips and Bonhams under his belt, he has been acting independently for the past 18 months as Bob Gowland International Golf Auctions.

Princess Soraya’s father Khalil lived for much of the 1920s in Germany, where he married Soraya’s Russian-born mother Eva Karl in 1926. Soraya was born in Ispahan in 1932, but lived in Germany until she was five, returning to Iran in 1937.

This quartet of Meissen white figures from Augustus the Strong’s Japanese Palace was a centrepiece of the June 13 evening sale from Longleat, contributing £2.9m to the overall total.

Following hot on the heals of a gold cased pocket watch which took £25,000 Sherborne auctioneers Charterhouse (15% buyer’s premium) found further horological success on May 31 with this early 19th century carriage clock, right.

One of the more curious sections of Sotheby’s sale at Billingshurst on 21-22 May was devoted to natural, rather than man-made statuary.

Brown furniture has proved hard to shift at auction in recent months but the success of this George I burr walnut chest on stand offered at the Bristol Auction Rooms on June 18 may signal the tide is turning.

Butterfields, the San Francisco auctioneers, who made the national press in March following the controversy over a Malcolm X archive, were front page material again in June following the sale of the only surviving parts from the atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima.

FELLOWS and Sons, the Birmingham auctioneers, have refunded the buyers of three watercolours sold as the work of Prince Charles last week after the pictures were revealed as forgeries.

A CAMPAIGN to change the law could force the closure of antiques fairs that are currently allowed to operate without planning permission. The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) is targeting its initiatives at car boot sales, motorsport meets and clay pigeon shooting, but the proposed change would embrace antiques events too.