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Golf in the USA PICTURED here is a remarkable wooden golf club that was the highlight of a specialist sporting and golf sale held in Miami last month.

ORIENTAL rug expert Simon Crosby had launched a global appeal after his cleaning woman made off with part of his collection.

AFTER a slow start, this Henley event picked up with the furniture section in which an early 18th century 2ft 5in (74cm) wide oak chest of three drawers with original handles, shot past its £300-500 estimate to sell at £3100.

UK: Sworders, Stansted: A mammoth 1200 lots made up the March dispersal by the Essex auctioneers and there were some real quality pieces among them, both in the ceramics and the furniture.

UK: THE best ever attended sale at Newent Auction Rooms (5 per cent buyer’s premium) on the March 30th – auctioneer John Parrott frankly believed numbers at the March 30 event were boosted by foot-and-mouth cancellations elsewhere – was led by this pretty Queen Anne walnut desk.

UK: ARTS Minister Alan Howarth has become increasingly active in placing temporary bans on the export of works of art

To what extent the bouyant market for Gaudy Welsh pottery would become deflated if every American collector realised it was actually made in Staffordshire, England, not Wales, is a pertinent question – given the misty eyed view of Scottish/Welsh/Irish history from the other side of pond.

THE star of this 476-lot Kent sale arrived late and direct from a tractor shed where it had languished for a decade.

UK: SMALLER than usual at 412 lots – the Sussex floods earlier in the year having distracted potential vendors – the March sale at Henry Adams’ Chichester rooms was nevertheless strong on quality, which is what buyers want.

Sotheby’s find a warm welcome in Wales with record bid and active museum interest UK: THE strong, and occasionally extraordinary, demand for Celtic art, both Scottish and Irish, has been a feature of the art market for years and has warranted specialist picture sales devoted to those country’s painters.

Few businesses can boast the sort of charitable contributions of Tomlinson Antiques, the furniture wholesaler of Tockwith, North Yorkshire.

UK: One of the least prepossessing lots, but obviously rare and among the more sought after of the day’s offerings, was a small handbill recording the plague tally and burial record for the Cambridge colleges from Christmas Day 1666 to New Year’s Day 1667.

UK: BY the time you read this, the Kent and Medway Bills should have passed into law, with Royal Assent being given on Tuesday, April 10, although there will be a six-month delay until it can be enforced.

Toy soldiers and figures There was a larger than usual civilian element to the latest sale of toy soldiers and figures, held by Christie’s South Kensington on March 30.

BUILDING confidence in buying on the Web is an ongoing and lengthy process, but one that can be helped by the efforts of those on the sales side.

The growth of the Internet, and the reluctance of the biggest auctioneers to deal with low-value goods, has helped provincial auctioneers win more business.

The contents and joints are loose and the upper hinge is nearly detached, but the maroon cloth gilt binding of this 1890 first issue of what was only Conan Doyle’s second Sherlock Holmes story, The Sign of Four, are pretty good and this copy sold at Dominic Winter for £3000 to Bromlea & Jonkers.

UK: THE market for Arts & Crafts furniture remains a buoyant one as was evident at the February 28 sale held by Dorking-based Crow’s Auction Gallery (10 per cent buyer’s premium), when a period 5ft 10in wide by 6ft high (1.78 x 1.83m) oak dresser with open arched back panel and central bubble glazed door led the way at £1300.

Greene & Greene, by Edward R. Bosley

Cornish Ware and Domestic Pottery by T.G. Green, by Paul Atterbury