South-east England

The centrepiece of Bonhams’ Japanese offering on May 11 was the second part of the extraordinary collection of netsuke formed by US concert pianist Julius Katchen (1926-69) and his wife Arlette.

A painting by equine artist Lucy Kemp-Welch (1869-1958) sold for four times its top guide at Bellmans (20% buyer’s premium).

A Charles-Francois Daubigny (1817-78) painting that had been in the same private collection since 1963 topped Nesbits’ (19% buyer’s premium) sale in Portsmouth on May 17.

In our continuing series looking through the keyhole of ‘bricks and mortar’ shops in 2017, ATG talks to Jonathan Menezes, who has owned Bow Windows Bookshop in partnership with Ric Latham since 2010.

It’s a full-on ‘green’ home theme for this year’s annual architectural salvage fest at the Fawley Hill Estate near Henley-on-Thames.

Annual West Sussex event held for the third time is busy throughout its three-day run...

Like Petworth, Lewes is a place known for its antiques shops. A nearby fair running from June 2-4 provides a chance for visitors to get an extra dose of shopping.

The DNA of Summers Place Auctions remains firmly rooted in the bygone days of Sotheby’s regional empire. But, as the firm marks 10 years as a specialist auction house in Sussex, it is looking to new horizons...

Such are the positive reports coming in from the provinces that one begins to fear what the finger-crossing superstitious call the curse of the commentator and the more rational know as the reversion to the mean.

Dreweatts has set a new auction record for the 20th century British sculptor John Skeaping (1901-80). At Donnington Priory on May 24, this 2ft (60cm) pink marble carving, Female nude, right, signed and dated 1928, sold to Cork Street dealership Browse & Darby for £90,000 (£111,600 including premium).

A stand-out 1930s Art Deco onyx table lamp from Belgium is one of the highlights of Style 1900’s 20th Century Decorative Arts Fair. It will be held at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-on- Sea in East Sussex on Saturday and Sunday, June 17-18.

Summers Place Auctions in Billingshurst is well known for its Garden Statuary and Natural History sales. Now it is adding a new category to the portfolio.

The late Hubert Dingwall began a lifetime of book collecting in 1935 with the purchase of a vellum bound copy of the second part only of a 1697 Antwerp edition of Don Quixote for one shilling and sixpence.

“I think the secret to our success is that we now hold an art sale every four weeks.” A 90% sell-through rate from 400 lots was the latest bullish stat to come out of John Nicholson’s (24% buyer’s premium) monthly picture auctions, started this year by specialist Buffy Parker.

If you don’t know which epic film opens with the phrase ‘A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….’ then you may just be living on a different planet.

An 18th century silver mechanical lifesize musical swan that catches a fish out of a crystal stream entranced Mark Twain when he saw it an exhibition in Paris in 1867.

A sketchbook by the Bavarian artist Georg Johann Scharf (1788-1860) was discovered recently by ephemera dealer Valerie Jackson-Harris at the Sunbury Antiques Market at Kempton Park.

Last October we reported that Oxford’s Antiques on High’s owner, antiquarian book dealer Tony Sloggett, wanted to retire and find a new owner for the antiques centre which has traded in the city for 20 years. The situation remains unchanged, however, and it is business as usual at the centre for now.