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WE have heard a lot about antiques being out of fashion, and the best reply is that if antiques are presented stylishly they are always in fashion. Just look at a window of upmarket Fifth Avenue Manhattan store Saks during New York’s Fashion Week. The chief window designer of Saks called on East 61 St dealers Historical Design and said he had the idea of introducing Saks’ new shoe floor with high fashion shoes displayed on vintage chairs.

Provincial auctioneer’s novel twist for breaking into the American market

This heraldic ceramic charger by Alfred and Louise Powell, c.1920, is one of 140 examples of Cotswold Arts and Crafts on view at Simon Chorley Art & Antiques from October 13-21 as part of a loan exhibition titled Cotswold Craftsmen, 1894 to the present day.

THE dealers who found a cache of work by the artist Sir Kyffin Williams in a secret drawer have given it up in the face of legal pressure.

A pair of 19th century Venetian views by Italian artist Francesco Zanin proved to be the high point of a Silver Jubilee auction held by Ewbank auctioneers of Surrey on September 20 and provided their owner, a local Dorking family, with an unexpected financial bonus when they sold for multiples of their original estimates.

EXHIBITORS booked for the forthcoming NEC Birmingham and LAPADA Cheltenham fairs are being targeted by Austrian-based scam guide FAIR Guide.

The auction of the Rostropovich-Vishnevskaya collection of Russian art was dramatically cancelled the day before the sale following an offer from a Russian businessman for the entire collection.

GOLD reached a 27-year high last Friday thanks to the weakness of the US dollar, fears that it will continue to drop, and soaring oil prices. Other factors may include the pending Diwali Festival in India when it is traditional for people to give gifts of gold.

Asian Art in London celebrates its tenth anniversary from November 1 to 10 and as part of the anniversary celebrations will join with the British Museum to hold a Study Day around the exhibition The First Emperor: China’s Terracotta Army on November 10. Tickets for the day cost £22 (contact 0207 323 8181).

DATES for the launch of The Beijing International Chinese Antique Fair have been moved to November 30-December 4 from November 28 to December 2 as initially announced. This is described as an important Government project and, as such, special services for exhibitors and visitors are being arranged.

Top British art dealer Simon Dickinson was arrested by Customs authorities on September 14 in connection with the £17m sale of nine Dutch Old Master paintings to the Liechtenstein Museum.

Shanghai seems all the rage these days. Hot on the heels of the launch of two new international fairs — ShContemporary in early September, and the Shanghai Antiques & Jewellery Fair (October 13-21) — Artcurial are opening premises on Yongjia Lu, in the French Concession district of Shanghai, to stage lectures and exhibitions, as well as hosting an art bookshop — much along the lines of the firm’s Paris HQ at the Hôtel Dassault on the Champs-Elysées.

THE two teams line up following the annual cricket match between the Cotswolds Art & Antiques Dealers Association and the opposition, traditionally termed “The Rest of the World” but consisting largely of Thames Valley association dealers augmented by a contingent from Norfolk

Readers are advised to be wary of cut-price Whitefriars Drunken Bricklayer vases – they may be fakes.

Suffolk antique tool auctioneer Tony Murland (10% buyer’s premium) is known for his hyperbolic cataloguing but the description accompanying this nearly 400-year-old horn handled hunting knife was a classic.

AS Bloomsbury Auctions get set for the opening of their new saleroom in New York this month, their turnover for the first six months of 2007 showed a 45 per cent increase on the same period last year.

Bonhams, who have recently taken on a number of staff from Sotheby’s, have announced that Christie’s two most senior motoring directors and one of its motoring consultants will join their car department on November 1.

AT Bristol Crown Court last week Torquay art dealer Colin Stodgell was jailed for three years for income tax fraud amounting to £750,000 over seven years.

When Wales’ most popular 20th century artist Sir Kyffin Williams passed away last year he bequeathed the furniture from his Anglesey home to the University College of North Wales. Numerous pieces that the University did not require turned up in The Wales and West Country Sale at Bonhams Bath on June 25.

THIS George II walnut syphon tube wheel barometer by John Hallifax of Barnsley, c.1730, was one of the 209 lots from the Edwin Banfield collection offered by Dreweatt Neate of Donnington Priory on September 4. In a white glove sale all the lots found buyers.