East Midlands

WITH a name like the Old Picture Palace, the former cinema in Matlock that is the newly acquired saleroom of the Derby auctioneers Bamfords (15% buyer’s premium) should be the sort of venue where the more traditional end of the art market should feel at home.

GRANTHAM auctioneers Golding Young, like many provincial operations, are changing their sales format this year, moving from specific “antique” sales and “general” sales to more inclusive events to meet the changing scene.

Although a £12,000 oil by Arthur Spooner (1873-1962) was the most expensive entry in the sale at Derby held by Bamfords (15% buyer’s premium) on December 9-10, perhaps the most eye-catching lot was this Lenci dish, right.

THE inscription Wilkes And Liberty No. 45 on this 9in (23cm) diameter Lambeth delftware portrait plate is as good as a date as it refers to the publication of the 45th issue of John Wilkes’ sharp-tongued periodical The North Briton.

NOTTINGHAM-based organiser of specialist Deco fairs Nick Cox, who trades as Abbey Fairs, has increased his stable to five since last December and he launches a new event at Kelham Hall, a gothic manor house near Newark, next year.

On an April morning of this year, Guy Davis, book consultant to Bamfords of Derby, gave an interview on BBC Radio Derby in which he talked about a copy of the first Rupert annual of 1936 that was to be sold at auction later that same day.

North Yorkshire auctioneers Tennants, who bought the Heathcote Ball name earlier this year, are to open a consignment office in Leicester this month but have no plans to hold auctions in the Midlands.

LINCOLNSHIRE-based Grosvenor Exhibitions are professional organisers in a number of fields, not just antiques, but they are upping their antiques profile with a new Midlands fair scheduled for December.

ONE thing you cannot accuse DMG Antiques Fairs of is resting on their laurels. Their Newark International Antiques & Collectors Fair, held six times a year at the Nottinghamshire showground, is Europe’s biggest.

MID APRIL saw only the second sale held by Bamfords, the Derbyshire auctions firm (15% buyer's premium), but elated auctioneer James Lewis, talking from his mobile whilst filming a new episode of BBC TV’s Flog It!, felt it to be the best he had seen in Derby in at least five years.

IT’S hard to say whether modern studio potters find the Della Robbia story inspiring or depressing. Established by Harold Rathbone and Conrad Dressler in Birkenhead in 1894, in its 12-year operation the factory became a key part of the Arts and Crafts movement but also went broke.

WHILST the rest of the antiques trade has taken a marked downturn, niche collecting areas remain largely unaffected. This was proved when the March 29 sale held by David Stanley Auctions (10% buyer's premium), specialist Leicestershire tool auctioneers, went on to be one of their best ever.

NOT a fair that has in recent years maintained a very high profile but nevertheless the annual Buxton Antiques Fair has been running for nearly 40 years and is a lot better quality fixture than many better publicised ones.

FAMOUS since the 16th century for its boys’ school, the small Rutland market town of Uppingham can also brag about being the home of the Goldmark Gallery. With a secondhand book department, this very amiable and innovative gallery always has much to delight, particularly in the field of 20th century prints.

OVERSEAS and home dealers were out in force on April 6 for the official launch of one of the more exciting recent trade initiatives, Antiques Trade Space at Newark, Nottinghamshire.

THE distillation of a life of taste, dedication to a collecting field and unique expertise. This rare confluence of qualities may be seen this Thursday, May 1, when Neales of Nottingham present the 163-lot single-owner collection of one of their own cataloguers.

Illustrated are a pair of ice pails, covers and liners from the Duke of Newcastle’s Derby porcelain service, c.1797, dispersed by Mellors and Kirk in Nottingham on April 10.

UK: AN educational charity in Derbyshire is offering a substantial reward for information leading to the safe return of the mechanism and dial of a longcase clock.

Coming up in Lincoln: “ENGLAND expects every man to do his duty.” Nelson’s famous command was to be his last and effectively signalled the end of the Battle of Trafalgar. Details surrounding the start of the campaign are much more sketchy, but on February 20 Lincoln auctioneers Thomas Mawer & Son will be offering a memorandum written by Nelson to launch the famous battle.

BESWICK is one of the strongest areas of the 20th century collectable ceramics market so it was not surprising to see trade and private collectors packing these Leicestershire rooms at Gildings to bid on a large single-owner collection from a local deceased estate. What was surprising were the lengths to which bidders would go.