UK

Setting a record for the artist and making one the highest prices ever seen for a British picture, John Constable's ‘The Lock’ took £20m at Christie’s evening sale on July 3.

Only the day after a specialist sale at Bonhams, the June 29 auction at Strides of Chichester included two 3 x 2in (7 x 5.5cm) watercolour-on-vellum portraits by greats of the Commonwealth/Carolean age that trumped anything seen on Bond Street.

The Madoura Collection lived up to its billing as the single most important sale dedicated to Picasso ceramics ever held when it went under the hammer at Christie’s South Kensington.

Sue Ede has acquired ‘The Bath Decorative Antiques Fair’ from Robin Coleman, the Bath-based dealer who has organised the event for the past 23 years.

Highly lucrative totals, a record sale and a selection of unprecedented prices seen for individual artists – the Contemporary art market seemed to carry on regardless in London last week.

Pictures, books and ephemera from the Great Tew estate in Oxfordshire will be offered for sale at Holloway’s in Banbury on July 10.

Bonhams have integrated Lalique back into their broader mix of 20th century design auctions.

The attractions of variations from run-of-the-mill ceramics extends to all factories, and the recent sale of a Royal Doulton 'Nelson' jug showed how the presence of a rare backstamp mark can increase the value of an item 100 times over.

A highlight at Fieldings Auctioneers’ July 7 sale in Stourbridge is a box containing personal effects reputed to have belonged to Captain William Kidd, the well-known Scottish sailor who was convicted of piracy and hanged in London on May 23, 1701.

Richard Winterton Auctioneers of Lichfield, Staffordshire will be offering for sale on July 5 a corporate collection of original artwork to include works by Vida Gabor, Jean Chaleye, Sue Ryder and Byron Howard among others.

A collection of Cornish Troika pottery will go under the hammer at Lawrences of Crewkerne, Somerset at their three-day, mixed-discipline sale on July 3, 5 and 6.

Among the star attractions at Bloomsbury Auction’s ‘Urban Contemporary’ sale, a 120-lot auction held on July 3 in Mayfair, London is ‘Moona Lisa’, a unique rendition in gold by Bristol-based artist Nick Walker.

ATG Editor Ivan Macquisten is pictured here chairing a debate at the Summer Olympia fair on how the West should adapt to the demands of the Asian market.

Lockdales of Ipswich are probably best known as coin and militaria specialists but, having moved premises earlier this year, they have also offered some stand-out items in their fine art and antiques sales in 2012.

A new management structure at Tennants of Leyburn has seen proprietor Rodney Tennant pass the day-to-day running of the business to a fourth generation.

Glamorous, imaginative, fresh, unashamedly expensive and just a bit OTT – ‘Masterpiece London’ is back for a third time.

Seldom appearing at auction, this very rare English, Longton Hall porcelain figure of Guanyin, c.1750 will be offered at Chorley’s June 28, ceramics-focused sale in Gloucestershire.

The fine pictures, silver and jewellery auction at Halls of Shrewsbury on June 27 will offer for sale the coronets and accompanying robes bought in the second quarter of the 19th century from Garrard & Co Ltd and worn by the Earl and Countess of Cavan.

This Chinese cloisonné enamel crane from the Qing Dynasty (18th-19th century) will be offered in Dreweatts’ Donnington Priory sale on June 27.

A 19th century vampire-slaying kit will be just one of the unusual pieces for sale at Tennants on June 22.