Northamptonshire

The bomb release button from the Lancaster bomber of 617 Squadron that released the ‘bouncing bomb’ which destroyed the Möhne Dam on May 17, 1943 is being offered at auction for the first time.

Whittlebury saleroom JP Humbert have appointed Francesca Ellis as co-director.

More information has emerged about the colourful recent history of the £5m Wolsey Angels.

Five truly remarkable items of British wartime history are being offered for sale at J.P. Humbert Auctioneers of Towcester.

Two metal detectorists have been given suspended jail sentences in what is being hailed as a landmark case for the Portable Antiquities Scheme. It is the first time that such a ruling has been made since the scheme, which was piloted in the 1990s, came fully into force in 2003.

A unique ceremonial key for opening Victoria Bridge in Kuala Kangsor, Malaysia, is one of the more unusual items coming up at JP Humbert of Towcester’s September 26-27 sale.

CHURCHILL impersonator Derek Herbert was in Towcester on March 16 to aid Northamptonshire auctioneer Jonathan Humbert in the sale of a pair of acetate tortoiseshell-effect reading glasses that belonged to Sir Winston.

A NEW auction house based at the Silverstone race track opened for business in February.

A WEEK before she launches her West London Art & Antiques Fair, Caroline Penman has announced another new summer event, The Towcester Antiques Fair which will take place at Towcester Racecourse in Northamptonshire from June 25 to 27.

THE first salvos in the battle between the showground fairs giants saw up to 4000 exhibitors head to Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire earlier this month.

FOR an item almost destined for a landfill site, this delapidated red leather chesterfield, found in the outhouse of a Northamptonshire rectory, wouldn’t be the first thing you would expect to generate international bidding.

J.P. Humbert Auctioneers are to combine their two salerooms and focus their business in Towcester.

J.P. Humbert opened their new saleroom in Towcester on September 25. After five years at a site on Burcote Road site they can now be found in a 4000 sq ft premises on the Silverstone Business Park situated off the A43.

FIRST a dealer and now an organiser - Phil Savory, a Northamptonshire-based dealer in ceramics and treen who exhibits at fairs in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Essex, has decided to start his own fairs venture, PJ Fairs.

JP Humbert auctioneers of Towcester have purchased Harp auctioneers of Northampton.

SOME months ago I reported that Reindeer Antiques from Northamptonshire were planning a Reindeer Antiques Centre. That is now up and running and officially opened to the public on January 2.

HIGH-profile dealers Reindeer Antiques, who have a shop in Kensington Church Street, London W8 and a large complex in Northamptonshire, are to convert part of the latter into the Reindeer Antiques Centre.

WELL-KNOWN exhibitors at a number of fairs, the Northamptonshire restoration and retail business Aspidistra Antiques are planning to sell their shop in the small country town of Finedon, near Wellingborough, and move to France.

UK: POLICE investigating the theft of 70 works of art – including several Lowrys – from a private collector in Northamptonshire in January have arrested a total of three men.