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FRANCE: JEAN-BAPTISTE OUDRY brought early Spring smiles to Drouot as his Maison du Jardinier (1739) pictured here, first shown at the Salon of 1740, sold to a French buyer for a world record Fr6.2m (£639,000) under the Le Blanc hammer on March 17.

UK: FOR ‘British Decorative Arts’ read ‘British Decorative Ceramics’, or at least that is the way it looked at Christie's South Kensington (15/10 per cent buyer’s premium) back on March 3. They dominated this event to the extent that they accounted for four-fifths of the 419-lot auction.

- Raymond Chandler on the English US: IN MY LAST American round-up, I reported on the sale at Swanns of an early printing of the Treaty of Paris that had been owned by the Reverend Samuel Cooper of Boston, a now largely forgotten but once key political and spiritual figure in the War of Independence.

UK: NEXT year, with the beginning of a new millennium, 19th century furniture will seem far older than it actually is. But for some time now the finer pieces have been making prices comparable to their 18th century exemplars and this was certainly the case when this late 19th century satinwood and mahogany breakfront bookcase came up for sale at Heathcote Ball (10 per cent buyer’s premium) in Leicester on February 25.

Cameos Old and New by Anna M. Miller

UK: THE art trade generally classifies pictures as being either “commercial” or “academic” and it was generally the later term which best described the quality on offer at Phillips’ (15/10 per cent buyer’s premium) March 19 sale of The Lloyd Collection of pictures in Oxford.

GAVELNET.COM, the San Francisco-based Internet auction specialists have denied claims that they are winding up their UK operation.

Silver prices reached their highest level for a decade last week when dealers learned that the American billionaire investor Warren Buffet had bought 20 per cent of the world's total supply.

Christie’s evening sale of Impressionist and Modern Art in London was led by Claude Monet's Iris Mauves as two telephone bidders battled it out over the £6m-9m estimate until the hammer fell at £9.6m.

HAMPTONS Auctioneers of Godalming will change their name to Dreweatt Neate this month. Having become part of The Fine Art Auction Group earlier this year, the saleroom will be rebranded under the Dreweatt Neate banner in time for the Surrey firm’s April 13 sale.

Sotheby’s evening sale of Contemporary art in New York on November 13 achieved the highest total for any auction in the company’s history.

A family-owned glassworks and museum has closed and is selling its stock from the venue this month.

Businesses were evacuated and a street closed when police were called after a grenade was sent in the post to a secondhand, vintage and antiques dealership in Leeds.