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A WORK of art in itself, a piece of US history and redolent of the tragic past of the American Indian tribes in which so many collectors are now passionately interested. Could any artefact be more likely to guarantee a huge price than this Blackfoot war bonnet, right, dating from the early/mid 19th century but still in fine condition?

Responding to requests from auctioneers and site users, the pop-up images on antiquestradegazette.com are now bigger.

François Tajan, chairman and principal auctioneer of Tajan SA, France’s leading auction firm for many years, is quitting the company and will leave at the end of April.

CHRISTIE’S have launched their appeal against the High Court judgment in the Houghton urns case.

DEALERS who have been waiting in vain for a sustained up-turn in business are being urged to register for the fourth Art of Dealing conference on May 16.

VISCOUNT Linley has joined Christie’s as a non-executive director.

Normally the phrase ‘museum quality’ implies pieces so rarified that you only occasionally meet them in the normal course of antique hunting.

Police have issued this CCTV image of a man wanted for questioning in connection with a theft at a Greenwich antiques shop.

Back in the 1920s the Great Western Railway was amongst the pioneers of marketing. It produced a large array of promotional items, among which were the well-known series of wooden jigsaw puzzles made by the Chad Valley toy company, and sold on the railway’s bookstalls. Nearly 40 different puzzles were made.

A GROUND-BREAKING study into the likely effects of a new levy on art shows it could seriously damage the UK market and cost jobs.

Figures of Victorian cricketers are, like all of the sporting groups, amongst the most desirable of the Staffordshire portrait groups.

Two pictures by Henry Redmore (1820-1887) helped Scarborough auctioneers David Duggleby (12.5% buyer’s premium) to a record sale back on November 29 by selling for a combined £27,600.

Two unfamiliar French artists, Gustave Cariot and André Marchand, figured strongly at Tajan’s Modern art sale on January 31.

TAJAN (20.93% buyer’s premium) started the year with guns blazing on January 17 and a sale dominated by 19th century weaponry.

Cassius Marcellus Coolidge (1844-1934), born in upstate New York to abolitionist Quaker farmers, was a man of many talents. Over his long lifetime he was a banker, shopkeeper, inventor and painter -– he even penned an opera. However, he is best known to generations of bar-going Americans for his paintings of dogs playing poker.

Have van, will travel. Competition for market-fresh material is as strong in the northwest as anywhere in the country, so auctioneer Adrian Byrne was more than happy to entertain the prospect of travelling to the Orkney Islands in pursuit of a decent house clearance.

FOR a century and a half, the family breweries which peppered Stroud, supplied the Cotswolds with a variety of ales.

Clarke Gammon Wellers, Guildford, December 14. Buyer’s premium: 15 per centTHE current demand for decorative furniture was underscored at this 710-lot Surrey auction by a pair of hybrid, George III, satinwood marquetry and parcel gilt side tables which stole the limelight.

ANOTHER feature of this early winter New York season is the sales held by Baldwin’s Auctions, Dmitry Markov and Münzen und Medaillen (New York branch) (all 15% buyer’s premium).

The venerable Mayfair dealership The Fine Art Society, whose Bond Street premises are currently undergoing stage two of a refurbishment, has announced two youthful appointments to its board of directors.