South-east England

The discovery of Anglo-Saxon coins near Aylesbury in December is the largest find of its type in 175 years.

Appearing at a recent sale held by Toovey’s of Washington, West Sussex, this Imperial Qianlong famille rose and calligraphic vase sold for a house-record £520,000.

Pre-war delivery vans advertising commercial brand names have long acquired trophy status in the Dinky toy market.

The Bodleian Library in Oxford has bought the personal archive of William Henry Fox Talbot, the British ‘founder of photography’, after a successful appeal.

The name Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805) was mentioned as the possible hand responsible for this unsigned 18th century French charcoal and chalk drawing that leapt from lowly expectations to sell for £320,000 (plus 22.5% buyer’s premium) at Toovey’s of Washington, West Sussex on October 8.

When Ann Ullmann, the daughter of Eric Ravilious (1903-42), visited J.S. Auctions’ newly refurbished salerooms in Banbury in August, she declared herself delighted to see this previously unknown 16 x 20in (41 x 52cm) watercolour, above, by her father for the first time.

THE Wellers Group is reorganising its auction business at both its Guildford and Chertsey salerooms, moving away from fine art in favour of architectural elements and interiors.

An antiques dealer who forged signatures of famous people such as Winston Churchill and Robert Louis Stevenson has been told he will have to sell his house to pay back more than £33,000 he took in through the scam.

This George III neoclassical style mahogany serving table was entered for sale at Nesbits in Southsea from a church in Portsea to raise funds for repairs. It is thought the table was given to them to replace the altar table destroyed by bomb damage.

With the new auction season kicking off in September, plenty of pictures will be going under the hammer over the next few weeks and, naturally, there are a few stars that have come to light across the regions.

Earlier this month, 100 years to the day since the outbreak of the First World War, Sandham Memorial Chapel near Newbury reopened to the public after restoration.

Chichester firm Stride & Sons included two fine Georgian miniatures in their latest sale.

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.

COMMENT - Are children just an irritating distraction to the serious business of appreciating art in a museum or gallery? Is it time to turn back the tide and put adult appreciation front and centre? As the father of two, Antiques Trade Gazette Editor Ivan Macquisten speaks from experience.

Selborne, Hampshire, auctioneer Hannams produced a YouTube video to promote the presence of this very early key-wind musical box by Nicole Frères in their inaugural sale.

The Art Fund have launched a new crowdfunding scheme to help museums and galleries, the first of which should also help boost the art and antiques trade around Hastings.

Maori boat-shaped feather boxes – or ‘waka huia’ – are infrequent visitors to UK salerooms so it was unusual to see two examples sold in close proximity this summer.

Book dealers have been urged to be on the lookout after a second edition of the King James Bible from 1614 was stolen from a Berkshire church.

The story goes that Steiff black mohair bears were produced as mourning bears after the Titanic disaster in April 1912.

The school curriculum needs to focus more on arts and crafts if the creative industries are to have a future in the UK. So says the director of education at West Dean in West Sussex.