London

A US collector is the new owner of a 5000-year-old tablet that contains the earliest-known record of any personal name in history.

Whoever H Twyman was, his talents as a craftsman are beyond doubt.

A group of seven works from a private collection by René Charles Pierre Princeteau (1843-1919) appeared at the Roseberys sale on June 4, all of them selling for a combined £72,100. Interest was reported from France, Belgium and the US.

MADAM – I was astonished to learn that the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has specifically decided to refuse any grants under the Discretionary Grant Scheme to antiques market stallholders in Portobello Market.

Bonhams will sell the third tranche of a substantial private collection of Meissen on July 22. It includes a number of Böttger stonewares with this 4in (10cm) head of the Emperor Vitellius, c.1710-13, estimated at £4000-6000.

Pitching a work at the right level is crucial to demand and price when it comes to selling unattributed or loosely ascribed Old Masters at auction.

Providing a major boost to Bonhams’ first sale in London with room bidding since the lockdown, a portrait of the writer EM Forster by Roger Fry (1866-1934) set an auction record both for the artist and any Bloomsbury Group picture.

Jewellery auction house Elmwood’s has opened a new office in London and hired two new staff as business begins to return to normal after the lockdown.

Presenting some 434 lots and with a total not far short of £1m, a recent sale held by Forum Auctions (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) included a rich enough string of successes to outshine a few of the more highly valued lots left unsold.

It has been an undeniably difficult few months for antiques dealers with shops and centres shuttered and fairs cancelled. However, online events such as the recent ‘virtual’ 'Masterpiece' fair have helped generate some business, and many shops are now open under the usual restrictions.

More than 400 online enquiries came through the 'London Art Week' (LAW) website during its preview day last Thursday as it kicked off a new virtual format.

Joan Dunk (1930-2019) was a Portobello Road market stalwart. Her stall, for decades an outside pitch on the corner of Westbourne Grove, was affectionately known as IDA – the trade name of an early 20th century German kitchen equipment manufacturer which she adapted to mean ‘Interesting Domestic Appliances’.