South-east England

SINCE moving to premises in Kennetholme, Midgham, Berkshire’s Specialist Auction Services (15% buyer’s premium) have acquired a reputation for selling not just commemoratives and pot lids but also collectable toys.

ONE of the pleasanter surprises on the fairs front last year was the immediate warm reception the trade gave to the launch of Antiques & Audacity, a new event organised by Gloucester-shire dealer Jan Hicks and staged in the grounds of Arundel Castle, West Sussex.

DESPITE the myriad complaints that there are too many fairs, still they keep coming, and here is another. From May 7 to 9 Sue Ede of Cooper Antiques Fairs launches her Oxford County Antiques Fair at Eynsham Hall, an 18th century Grade 11 listed manor house in 30 acres of parkland near Woodstock.

STILL on the bargain front, Hampshire dealers Millers Antiques will slash 20 per cent off all stock to be offered at their annual Open Weekend Exhibition to be held from May 7 to 10 at their extensive premises at Netherbrook House, 86 Christchurch Road, Ringwood.

POLICE are warning the trade to be on the alert after a gang stole £8000 worth of jewellery from Banbury Antique Centre on April 19.

FOUR house clearances of properties each valued at over £1m meant some long and frantic hours of valuing and cataloguing for Wellers (15% buyer's premium)auctioneer Tim Duggan – three heavy weeks rewarded when the March 13 sale day was one of the best ever at the Surrey rooms with 95 per cent of the 1200 lots getting away notching up a total of well over £100,000.

SPRING may not seem the optimum time to be selling rocking horses but two Victorian-style examples did well at the March 4 sale held by Hobbs & Parker (10% buyer’s premium) at Ashford, Kent.

FOR more than 20 years Hallidays have been holding selling exhibitions at their picturesque Oxfordshire showrooms at The Old College, Dorchester-on-Thames. Over the years to broaden the appeal they have invited guest specialist dealers to participate in the shows.

THERE was no doubt about which were the two outstanding lots at Hamptons’ (15% buyer’s premium) March 24 picture sale in Godalming.

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE organisers Midas Fairs are relaunching their long-standing two-day Spring Bank Holiday fair at The Bellhouse Hotel in Beaconsfield next month. The previously popular partially standfitted event returns on May 30 and 31 after a year off, due to what Joy Alder of Midas describes as “circumstances beyond the organiser’s control”.

DEALERS are advised to check their vehicles before leaving showground fairs following a sophisticated robbery attempt at Sunbury Antiques Market.

WHEN valuing a piece of furniture in the clutter of a client’s poorly lit home, quality can be difficult to gauge. Like most auction house specialists, James Lees, at Banbury-based Holloways (15% buyer’s premium) admits there have been times he has subsequently doubted his initial appraisals.

DEMAND for good-quality, period stools continues unabated and one led Mervyn Carey's (10% buyer's premium) February 25 506-lot Kent outing. A Queen Anne walnut example, with drop-in, upholstered seat and scrolled cabriole legs, it sold at £3200, while a slightly lesser quality George I walnut stool, also with cabriole legs, managed a winning £950.

ON Thursday March 18 thieves broke into the Oxfordshire home of ex-jockey and racehorse trainer Stan Mellor and stole silver and works of art.

THE gulf in value between fully authenticated pictures and those with mere attributions was clearly in evidence on March 4 when this 18th century Irish School landscape, right, came up for sale at the Amersham Auction Rooms in Buckinghamshire.

THE Royal Museum & Art Gallery of Canterbury have acquired a van Dyck portrait of one of the city’s most famous sons from one of London’s leading Old Master picture dealers.

With a dozen works by the artist currently on show at Tate Britain’s Pre-Raphaelite exhibition, Sussex auctioneers John Nicholson (15% buyer’s premium) could hardly have picked a better time to offer a watercolour by George Price Boyce (1826-97) than at their March 17 sale in Fernhurst.

BUCKINGHAM-based Dickins Auctioneers have pulled a major rabbit out of the hat for their inaugural Spring picture sale on April 17 by including a previously unseen collection of 24 Erté (1892-1990) gouache theatrical costume designs which will include this one, right, for Showgirls.

NOT all the market resides in a state of stagnation.

A 100-LOT collection of Meissen, Derby and Cont-inental porcelain figures, together with some furniture and works of art from a local Thanet private vendor, formed the backbone of Canterbury Auction Galleries (15% buyer's premium) February 24 outing which attracted a large number of private buyers, many of whom secured the top ceramic lots.