UK

Next week sees the opening of ‘The London Design Festival’, which runs from September 13-21 with a host of shows and events across the capital.

When Stephen Drake of Willingham Auctions discovered a 3000-year-old Egyptian coffin cover in a house clearance on the Essex coast, he was amazed.

With the new auction season kicking off in September, plenty of pictures will be going under the hammer over the next few weeks and, naturally, there are a few stars that have come to light across the regions.

The First World War centenary has prompted numerous related exhibitions which have rather dominated the calendar this year as you might expect.

If Scotland votes for independence on September 18, how might this affect the ownership of art North and South of the Border?

The Christopher Foley collection of British commemorative medals will be sold at Salisbury auctioneers Woolley & Wallis on October 16. The sale is the most comprehensive of its type seen for a century or more.

Details have emerged of a theft of a significant collection of British pocket watches from a property in London earlier this year.

As the summer break ends, next month sees a rush of activity in the art world with a flurry of events not least in the Tribal Art category.

With the Scottish referendum only weeks away, there could hardly be a better time to offer a replica of a reliquary which for centuries was a powerful symbol of Scotland’s national identity.

German-made painted wood Noah’s arks, appealing to folk art and toy collectors alike, don’t get much better than this mid-19th century example sold recently at Brightwells in Leominster.

In April 2013, the Nantgarw China Works Trust took on the lease of the site of the Nantgarw pottery where porcelain was produced under the aegis of William Billingsley between 1813-14 and again from 1817-19.

Earlier this month, 100 years to the day since the outbreak of the First World War, Sandham Memorial Chapel near Newbury reopened to the public after restoration.

Since 1964 William Morris’s Cotswold home at Kelmscott Manor has been under the care of the Society of Antiquaries of London.

The opening lots of a recent sale at Reeman Dansie of Colchester comprised a collection of Chinese porcelain which included a rare bowl that was apparently a favourite resting place for the family cat.

When dispersing the contents of an artist’s studio, there is always the question of whether to sell the works all in one go or drip them onto the market over a longer period of time.

There are signs that last year’s publication of ‘The Della Robbia Pottery’ by Peter Hyland has given a lift to the market for the distinctive wares produced in Birkenhead by Harold Rathbone and Conrad Dressler between 1894-1906.

Chichester firm Stride & Sons included two fine Georgian miniatures in their latest sale.

Two drawings of Old Testament subjects by the American-born portrait and history painter Benjamin West (1738-1820) proved the highlight of the latest sale of Old Masters & 19th Century Works on Paper at Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions’ saleroom in Mayfair.

Pick up your stick and head out for ‘Canemania 2014’, the ninth international cane conference, to be held from September 10-13 in London.

The ‘piece of paper’ waved by Neville Chamberlain on his return from meeting Hitler in 1938 must count as one of the most infamous documents in history.