Print Edition

This 19th century thangka depicts the Buddhist goddess Tara seated in lalitasana on a lotus growing from a lake a pond, a padma in each hand.

MADAM – Marian Waters’ letter (‘Online catalogues are not much good for a breakfast chat’, ATG No 2489) highlights what I also believe is an important issue.

This unmarked teapot and cover, offered by Dreweatts, dates from the first decade of porcelain production at the Chelsea factory.

Our weekly listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

MADAM – re: Gavin Littaur’s letter (‘Ivory: don’t forget collector expertise’, ATG No 2487), I wholeheartedly agree.

Morphets (20% buyer’s premium) of Harrogate sold a Mouseman bureau for a tub-thumping £36,000 on April 15.

Bonhams conducts a general sale of Asian art in Knightsbridge on May 10.

MADAM – A recent email from thesaleroom.com had, as a featured lot, a replica Darth Vader helmet described as ‘vintage’.

A Mitchells (22% buyer’s premium) sale included selected contents from Greystoke Castle near Penrith – home to the Howard family for over 500 years.

Lyon & Turnbull’s May 14 sale in London includes this flambe glazed pear-shaped bottle vase that carries a Qianlong mark and may be of the period.

Andrew Cumming was among the first successful antiquarian book dealers to step into the shoes of the post-war greats such as Charles Traylen and Frank Hammond.

A Victoria Cross group awarded to a British soldier who volunteered to carry a vital message to a stranded platoon at Mericourt in October 1918, in the knowledge that five of his comrades had already been in killed in turn making earlier attempts, sold for £200,000.

A bronze sculpture of an ostrich catalogued as from the workshop of Mannerist sculptor Giambologna drew an extraordinary competition in Cambridge.

A work thought to be one of Thomas Gainsborough’s (1727-88) earliest attempts at oil painting as well as his earliest-known self-portrait was one of a number of lots drawing considerable attention at Cheffins.

Perhaps the finest assemblage of English clocks in private hands goes on sale in the summer at Winchester dealership Carter Marsh.

London indoor fair organisers have begun to announce dates for later this year.

Not to be confused with the modern Peter Rabbit series by Wedgwood, much scarcer teawares were made by the Grimwade’s factory in the 1920s.

The book section of a twice postponed Gloucestershire sale – one that included the rare white Chelsea owl featured on the front page of ATG No 2486 – comprised books from the library at Spetchley Park in the neighbouring county of Worcestershire.

Show focuses on how latest technology and techniques can reassess portraits and paintings.

Traders and buyers express relief – and gratitude – at return of twice-monthly fixture.