East of England

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.

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.

It’s only recently in the decade-long boom in Chinese works of art that Far Eastern buyers have come to appreciate once again the merits of Export silver. Once a neglected area, academic interest has been piqued in the subject as the marketplace moves in leaps and bounds.

A massive Coalport Feldspar porcelain jug painted with a study of Earl Spencer’s Durham Ox in a parkland setting has been bought by the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

Seventeenth century Dublin trefid spoons are extremely scarce. Last year a single rat-tailed example by Andrew Gregory, 1685, sold for €9000 at Adams of Dublin.

Trading from the Arts Museum in Cockspur Street, the famous James Giles (1718-80) china and glass decorating atelier produced an enormous diversity of bijouterie for the London luxury trade.

The latest Asian art sale at Sworders in Stansted Mountfitchet was led by this massive 9½in (24.5cm) high Chinese calligrapher’s brush pot dating to the late 18th or early 19th century.

An item with an interesting local connection which is for sale at this Saturday’s Norwich Fleamarket is a rare Victorian large folio of European brass rubbings collected by a Norwich cleric.

This Qianlong mark and period hat or wig stand sold for a massive £360,000 at a recent Cheffins sale in Cambridge.

The Polar Museum in Cambridge has confirmed that it has secured the photographic archive linked to Scott’s last expedition after a public appeal for funds by explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

DEALER PROFILE – Carolyn Mackender started her professional life at Bonhams, changed direction to become a teacher and has now come full circle, working as a dealer in decorative, vintage and retro pieces.

A Suffolk saleroom set to hold their first auction in May are going for a new business model of flat vendors’ fees based on reserves rather than the hammer price.

People who change their lives by entering the trade often share something in common – they show what can be done with a passion for antiques plus drive, determination and chutzpah.

This pencil drawing by John Constable inscribed ‘Binfiled Decr. 6th 1816’ is believed to have made when the artist was staying in Binfield in Berkshire whilst returning from his honeymoon in Dorset with his wife Maria.

A single-owner collection of Modern British art will be offered at Boningtons’ sale of fine art, antiques and Asian works of art in Loughton, Essex on February 26.

A rare visitor to the recent numismatic sale at Lockdales in Martlesham Heath, Ipswich was a group of three convict tokens.

Cambridge auctioneers Cheffins have sold the residual contents of the Luton Hoo estate.

More than 80 lots of Danish rosewood furniture were withdrawn from Sworder’s January 28 sale of Decorative Art and Design after advice that their sale contravened the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna.

This Art Deco walnut sideboard accompanied by a dining table is one of around 400 lots of Art Deco, Arts & Crafts and Danish design furniture on sale at Sworders of Stansted Mountfitchet later this month.

This week’s 10 Questions is with Natalie Smith, owner of Woodbridge Antiques Centre, Suffolk