Front Page and News

Did the final days of 2018 provide the year’s greatest discovery? Bidders who pursued a bronze dragon head from €20,000 to €2.4m (£2.2m) at the Drouot in Paris on December 17 certainly thought so.

A new auction record for the idiosyncratic stonewares of the Martin brothers was established at Phillips’ Design sale in New York.

Estimated at £40-60, this unusual Chinese scholar’s object took £32,000 (plus buyer’s premium) at a recent auction at Rogers Jones in Cardiff.

Posters covering band or artist appearances during the embryonic days of their development are proving very popular at auction – a trend underlined by a group of 1966 Pink Floyd designs.

The antiques trade is to be celebrated in the New Year at a museum exhibition in County Durham.

A single-owner private collection, including significant works by artists from the Modern British canon, will be sold at Sworders in Stansted Mountfitchet on January 15.

A lavish Viennese gold-mounted porcelain tureen and stand – the epitome of Habsburg court luxury during the reign of the Holy Roman emperor Charles VI – topped Bonhams’ Fine European Ceramics sale in London on December 6.

Penguin patties, seal cutlets and roast reindeer – and lots of whisky – were on the menu for a famous meal which was followed by ‘Sledges at 12.30’.

Two south-west of England antiques dealers have launched an ‘Antiques Watchdog’ site designed to raise awareness of shoplifting in shops and centres around the country.

Tapestry and textiles specialist Franses has won a landmark Supreme Court case against its landlord, allowing it to continue to operate from the London gallery that has been its home for more than 25 years.

A series of portraits by some of the biggest names in the Old Master market led the way at the latest sales in this category in London. Among them were two versions of a Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641) portrait – one fully ascribed to the artist.

Two under-catalogued Sino-Tibetan bronzes illuminated the regional saleroom scene with multi-estimate sums in the final days of November.

Bram van der Stok MBE was not only the most decorated aviator in Dutch history and one of just three men to successfully flee POW Camp Stalag Luft III in the ‘Great Escape’, but also a proud member of the Caterpillar Club.

A monumental silver-gilt and cloisonné enamel kovsh by Feodor Rückert was among the highlights of the latest series of Russian art auctions in London

Danish auctioneer Bruun Rasmussen has withdrawn a Chinese flask from sale for the second time following disagreements over its age.

A pair of William IV candelabra from the Pembroke service led Bonhams’ Important Design: 500 Years of Fine Decorative Arts sale on November 21, selling at £190,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium).