South-east England

THIS pottery figure of a cat is among the rarest of the Cubist-style felines designed by Louis Wain for the Austrian manufacturer Amphora.

A Kent dealer has received a two-year suspended sentence following a three-year international operation into ivory and whale-tooth smuggling. The case is the latest under Operation Charm, an ongoing campaign against the illegal trade in endangered species in London.

Morton and Eden have sold 41 Celtic gold coins found by a metal detectorist in Kent for £35,500. The coins, some of which are shown here, were found over a three-year period between 2003 and 2006, scattered over a ploughed field near Westerham in Kent, the precise location of which is being kept secret.

APPRENTICE Andy Cunningham will be among those displaying their skills at the Open Weekend being held at the Edward Barnsley Workshop near Petersfield from June 21-22.

Talbot Walk Antique Centre of Ripley, Surrey is to relocate to Dorking where it will take over the building currently trading as Great Grooms Antique Centre at 51-52 West Street.

SOMEWHERE on a shelf in a pub in the Midlands there may be five rare books that could throw a whole new light on the Brontë family.

Police are looking for a thief resembling this man who stole a valuable clock from an antiques shop in Kent on Sunday March 9.

Burglars made off with a large cache of Doulton figures and silver in a sophisticated raid on Bagham Barn Antiques of Chilham, Kent last month.

After five years of trading in Worthing, Gorringes have closed their saleroom on 44-46 High Street. In its place, one of their senior valuers will be opening up in his own name.

EASTER weekend saw the opening of The Antiques Storehouse at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

Summers Place Auctions of Billingshurst, West Sussex, are to host The Glory Of The Garden in aid of St Catherine's Hospice, a Crawley-based charity, on May 16.

A DISTRICT court judge has dismissed a claim made against Holloway’s auctioneers regarding the condition report on an early wine bottle.

PROPERTY auctioneers Clive Emson have launched a fine arts division following the closure of auctioneers Hobbs Parker in Ashford, Kent.

Dukes have negotiated the sale to the nation of two major Pre-Raphaelite paintings. Music by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones and Hamlet and Ophelia by Dante Gabriel Rossetti were found in the Oxfordshire home of the late Jean Preston that also yielded two panels from the San Marco altarpiece by Fra Angelico sold by the Dorchester auctioneers last year for £1.7m.

Summers Place Auctions have revealed plans for a three-tier selling strategy when they hold their inaugural sale of garden statuary and fossil decoration ‘in association with Sotheby’s’ in May.

In 1963, the daring actions of a 15-strong band of small-time London criminals captivated the world’s media. In 2007, it seems the Great Train Robbery still has the capacity to seize headlines.

Mallams have announced the location of their new saleroom in Oxfordshire.

A Kent dealer has fallen victim to a thief whose practised deception suggests he will strike again.

Kent auctioneers Hobbs Parker are to close in the New Year. After more than 50 years selling antiques and fine art in Ashford, the parent company have chosen to close the division in the face of rising rent and external competition.

Another imperial Chinese sleeper has awoken in West Sussex.