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The UK’s art and antiques trade is bracing itself for challenging times as the impact of coronavirus takes hold.

One of the highlights of a busy week in the salerooms came at Dreweatts’ auction of the Sir William Whitfield (1920-2019) collection.

Leading auction houses around the UK told ATG last week that their sales calendars will continue as planned, with sensible precautions being taken in the saleroom. Many reported strong sales last week but some expressed understandable concern about future consignments. Here is an edited selection of their comments.

With the UK auction calendar yet to undergo significant changes and cancellations due to the coronavirus outbreak, many sales took place last week. Here are three highlights from around the country.

Among the rarest of all Subbuteo games invented and manufactured by Peter Adolph in Tunbridge Wells are those without a sporting theme.

This pair of 19th century continental silver-gilt figure groups is among the objects from a Rothschild collection to be sold by Woolley & Wallis later this year.

Online auction marketplace thesaleroom.com (owned by ATG parent Auction Technology Group) made the following announcement to reassure auction houses that internet bidding will continue uninterrupted:

Art and antiques dealers have welcomed news from Chancellor Rishi Sunak that the government will abolish business rates for small businesses for 12 months but warned more still needs to be done.

This finely modelled Hellenistic white marble figure of Aphrodite sold for £60,000 (plus 24% buyer’s premium) at Dominic Winter in South Cerney on March 5. Bidding opened at £30,000, twice the low estimate, before bids were exchanged between the internet and the phones.

Significant sales were made in the opening hours of the 33rd edition of TEFAF Maastricht - despite the absence of some major international buyers due to fears over coronavirus.

A pair of doucai ‘dragon’ dishes that was entered for sale by a local vendor sold for over 25-times estimate at East Yorkshire saleroom Hawley’s.

A spectacular competition came at Woolley & Wallis’ latest picture sale as 12 bidders pursued a pair of Italian Old Masters which the auction house had spotted tucked away in a dark corner of the vendor’s top landing.

As the Standard Catalogue of British Coins points out, this tiny denomination, the George VI silver threepence dated 1945 , essentially marks the end of the silver coinage and the beginning of modern coins made of copper-nickel and brass.

The art and antiques trade should be able to tap into the desire by younger people to buy second-hand, delegates of the latest LAPADA Conference were told.

At a recent seminar organised by the Responsible Art Market Initiative (RAM), a panel of experts answered questions from the floor about the new law.

An historic archive belonging to the engineer who oversaw the design of the Mulberry Harbours in the Second World War comes to auction in Cumbria later this month.

The UK remains in second place ahead of China in sales of art and antiques, according to the latest Art Basel and UBS global art market report 2020.

A lawyer acting for dealers and collectors battling to have the Ivory Act 2018 overturned has warned antique ivory owners they need to “prepare to sell quickly” if judges reject the legal challenge.