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Not to all tastes, Bunnykins and PenDelfin figures are strong enough collectors’ items to justify launching a “Bunny Weekend” in Cobridge, Staffordshire by Potteries Specialist Auctions</b. (10% buyer’s premium) on April 28-29.

USA: The gloom created by disappointing results at this month’s Impressionist and Modern sales in New York was swept away last week by the strong performance of contemporary art at the three main auction houses and reports of good business being done by a number of dealers at The International Fine Art Fair.

HY. Duke & Son of Dorchester have been brought in at very short notice to sell major pieces by John Makepeace on the premises at Parnham House in Dorset on May 26.

UK: Two Victorian mahogany bookcases topped this Ambrose , Essex sale – a library model with four glazed doors and four panel doors, 5ft 8in (1.73m) wide and a straightforward double door bookcase with two frieze drawers, 4ft 6in (1.38m) wide, each attracting bids of £1250.

UK: Nineteenth century brown furniture under £2500 was the trade staple of this monthly sale at Phillips' Sevenoaks in Kent, where the fiercest bidding contest was joined for a 20th century set of 22 mahogany balloon back dining chairs.

UK: A number of auctioneers have remarked on a rather flat silver market of late but the Surrey auctioneers Crow's saw no such reluctance among buyers with a number of offerings going well above estimate.

IS it a toy? Is it a joke? For the uninitiated the world of Masonic-style fraternities and lodges remains an enigma, but it is full of weird and wonderful opportunities for collectors who understand what they are looking at.

The trade will have to abide by the provisions of the Kent and Medway Bills as from December 1 this year. The announcement came from Kent Trading Standards on May 16, after the county council passed the resolution to introduce the Bill.

FRANCE: Sotheby’s and Paris auctioneers Maîtres Hervé Poulain and Rémy Le Fur have announced today an association to conduct three important sales in Paris on June 27, 28-29 and July 5, 2001.

Miller’s Collectables Price Guide 2001/2, edited by Madeleine Marsh

UK: Salvaged from the potting shed of a local farmhouse, this George II giltwood and marble topped console table attracted fierce bidding at Philip Serrell’s Malvern salerooms on May 10.

An 8th/9th century Syrian alabaster column capital provided the highest price for an object in London's spring Islamic series of sales.

Last updated 12 June 2001

USA: Fears that the recent slowdown in the US economy would drastically affect the top end of the art market were to some extent realised at New York’s Impressionist and Modern sales last week.

Salvo Guide 2000, by Thornton Kay

One of the high points of Bonhams & Brooks’ May 2 sale in the London Islamic Series of sales was a 10in (25cm) square Isnik tile, pictured, dated to c.1580.

Such is the ubiquity of lamp bases that have been converted from vases that rarely does one encounter a genuine collector’s item in this field, but this abstracted stoneware example produced for the Atlantis range of Poole pottery in the early 1970s, was a refreshing discovery. consigned to the Applied Arts sale at Sotheby’s South (15/10 per cent buyer’s premium) near Billingshurst on March 27.

Dennis Tito is evidently not the only American millionaire with a fascination for space exploration.

UK: Moroccan textiles were the strong suit in Christie’s South Kensington’s May 4 sale of Islamic and Indian textiles, none more so than this impressive 2ft 3in x 8ft x6in (70cm x 2.6m) silk-embroidered linen ceremonial panel dated to the 18th century and worked with striking abstract designs.

Internet auction giant EBay Inc. is to follow Yahoo in banning the sale of artefacts from Nazi Germany, in the hope of avoiding legal problems in other countries.