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Like many of the world’s major art markets these days, Paris concentrates activity in the Asian art field into series at specific times of the year in an attempt to attract those all-important buyers from Mainland China.

Held in Staffordshire this Saturday (July 15) is the annual Old Hall Collectors’ Club Fair.

Preserved in a fine contemporary binding of crimson morocco gilt that seems likely to have been specially commissioned by the artist from Pasqual Carsi y Vidal, a leading Madrid binder, a rare presentation set of Goya’s Los Caprichos prints sold for $500,000 (£393,700) at Christie’s New York (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) on June 15.

Looking at the images from Leyburn’s 1940s Weekend held at Thornborough Hall and in the main town square, you might think you were on a Second World War film or TV set.

Temperatures are usually high in London when the Society of Fine Art Auctioneers and Valuers (SOFAA) hosts its biennial dinner and this year was no exception. The heat outside didn’t dissuade attendees from donning black tie and high heels to the event at the Royal Thames Yacht Club in Knightsbridge on June 30.

Rocketing business rates and the impact of building works for Crossrail are to force the closure of Grays Mews.

A highlight of Sworders’ Country House sale in Stansted Mountfitchet on June 27 was a rare tinplate London omnibus.

TEFAF is to trial its own online selling platform at the fair organisation’s autumn New York event, with a view to building a permanent e-commerce presence.

The number of art dealers specialising in modern and contemporary art in central London is growing, and outstripping dealers in period work.

A round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days.

For previous generations of artist jewellers, from René Lalique to Andrew Grima, retail sales and private commissions were everything. Typically it was only much later in the collecting lifecycle, after a period of posthumous reassessment and rediscovery, that their work appeared at auction with any great regularity.

Ahead of the autumn sale of a star lot, Phillips' watch expert Aurel Bacs tells ATG why the time is right for the firm to expand its US watch business

The “oldest mathematical textbook still in common use today”, according to Printing and the Mind of man, is that written around 300BC by the Greek mathematician, Euclid of Alexandria.

ATG’s weekly selection of items on sale at auctions and dealerships.

Dendritic agate – a pale chalcedony with treelike inclusions caused by traces of iron or manganese – is a relatively lowly stone but was a favourite of Russian jewellers in particular. Carl Fabergé used it in many pieces in a country where it is considered a stone of longevity, good health and prosperity.

A selection of stand-out jewellery lots from regional auctions.

A “jewel-like” painting of a young girl reading by Edward Frampton (1870-1932) starred in Dominic Winter’s (19.5% buyer’s premium) June 15 sale.

One of the odder lots I have stumbled across in the many June book sales is a worn and soiled 12pp autograph catalogue, or calendar of “35 nude male races held on Kersal Moor [near Manchester] between 1777 and 1811”.

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period June 22-28, 2017. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

The collection of Tiffany jewels offered by Christie’s New York (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) on June 20 was the finest at auction in recent memory.