South-west England

A VOLUNTEER at the Royal Signals Regiment Museum in Blandford, Dorset, has been jailed for 12 months for stealing £33,000 of medals and selling them on eBay.

TWO of the West Country’s foremost fine art auctioneers, Bearne’s and Hampton & Littlewood, are to merge to become the biggest business of its kind in the South West.

The falling stock markets that have dented the wealth of Russia’s rich have yet to impinge upon the appetite for the output of Karl Fabergé.

A PAIR of silver 18th century Dutch candle snuffers thought to have been a gift from Bonnie Prince Charlie sold for £9800 at Hampton & Littlewood of Exeter on October 30. Measuring 8in (20cm) high, the snuffers and holder were passed down through the MacDonald family to the descendant who entered them for auction.

Smallwork remains one of the most collectable areas of the silver market, and Dorchester auctioneers Duke's will be aiming to tempt enthusiasts for one particular corner of this arena later this month.

Offered at Lawrences of Crewkerne on October 16, this Ming dynasty blue and white brushwasher has Xuande (1425-1435) character marks and is of the period.

WHETHER or not the art market will be able to steer its way through the current financial storm remains an open question. But providing some relief from the constant talk of falling stocks and the global credit crunch, a pair of Dutch marine pictures saw some strong bidding at the latest picture sale held by Woolley and Wallis on October 8.

Royal Worcester porcelain is one of those collecting areas which is plentiful enough in its many different ornamental styles to support a wide collecting base. There are buyers for all the different forms, from George Owen’s scarce reticulated vases to Doris Lindner’s equestrian models.

Gloucestershire auctioneers Simon Chorley began their autumn season on September 18, selling this Louis XIV ebony, ivory and tortoiseshell cabinet for £65,000 (plus 15 per cent buyer's premium).

A DEALER from Exeter has called on members of the trade to beware of opportunists conning sellers by swapping price labels when they purchase antiques.

The mass closure of small post offices around the country has been filling many column inches recently. Auctioneers W.H. Lane & Sons of Penzance are just one of many small businesses in more remote areas who believe their level of customer service will suffer when their local office is closed.

THIS 2in (5cm) long brooch is textbook Lalique. Fashioned as a cicada, its main constituent is glass set into a gold frame. The insect’s body is formed from pâte de verre and the wings from plique à jour enamel, both favourite Lalique materials.

Two major silver collections will be sold by UK provincial salerooms in the autumn season. Edinburgh-based auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull will offer for sale the first part of the Chen collection in London on November 23, while Salisbury’s Woolley & Wallis will complement their October silver sale with a single-owner catalogue devoted to the collection of the late George Petzall.

DEVON County Antiques Fairs, organisers of the largest circuit of antiques and collectors fairs in the Southwest, are cancelling two of their August fairs.

SOME 13 telephone bidders made their presence felt at a recent sale at Lawrences in Crewkerne, Somerset, as they turned out to compete for seven iconic 20th century prints by artists from the Grosvenor School of Art.

HUNDREDS of Victorian gothic revival floor tiles removed as part of a £2m renovation of the church of St John Baptist, Cirencester, will be sold by Moore Allen & Innocent on Friday, July 25.

After working together for more than a year, Somerset auctioneers Lawrences and Greenslade Taylor Hunt have decided to bring their partnership to an end. It does not, however, signal the end of regular sales in Taunton.

THE man regarded as the world’s leading authority on Rembrandt has declared the self portrait that sold at auction in the Cotswolds for £2.2m last October as a genuine work by the Dutch master.

As BBC cameras rolled for live television, Duke’s of Dorchester sold three pieces of purportedly ancient gold for a total of £56,000 on June 5. The consignment, rejected by at least one major London auction house before Duke’s accepted them, has been the source of much opinion since their sale was announced in late May.

François Nicole, the Geneva-based pioneer of the musical box, is thought to have made around 440 boxes during his working life, but only 60 are known today. Make that 61: courtesy of a local vendor another turned up at Cirencester auctioneer Moore Allen & Innocent on May 30.