Front Page and News

The UK ban on the trade in antique scrimshaw and narwhal tusks has been delayed following the change of government.

Plucked from a box of bric-a-brac brought in for a general sale, a Commonwealth gilt brass sealing wax box sold for £5200 at Lawrences of Crewkerne. A clever pun gives a clue to its maker’s identity - and perhaps his political leanings.

London dealer Dickinson is offering what it says is ‘the one of the most exciting old master discoveries to have been made in recent decades, and is an important addition to the small group of extant drawings by Michelangelo’.

A medieval walrus ivory gaming piece, recently found by a Gorringe’s valuer in a sock drawer, comes for sale in Lewes on October 8. As part of the Interiors & Decorative Arts Sale it has an estimate of £10,000-15,000

The highlight of the sale of Fine Clocks, Barometers and Scientific Instruments at Dreweatts was this French mantel clock with orrery c.1810. Although unsigned, it is thought to be by the talented Paris clockmaker Antide Janvier (1751-1835).

A landmark painting by renowned equine artist Lucy Kemp-Welch (1869-1958) has been reunited with the sketches she made to create the work thanks to a museum purchase from a dealer.

Aubreys, the recently launched auction house holding sales at Loseley Park, Guildford, is offering a single-owner collection of Qianlong period painted enamels on September 26.

Saved from a skip, a rich impression of Albrecht Dürer’s Knight, Death and the Devil hammered for £26,500 at the inaugural sale held by Rare Book Auctions on September 18.

London dealership Wartski has donated a collection of jewellery made by the Arts & Crafts silversmith Frederick Partridge to the Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft.