Birmingham

The summer instalment of Antiques for Everyone opened yesterday at Birmingham’s NEC.

With Birmingham’s Antiques for Everyone Spring fair underway, the ATG trawls the floor to give you an early view of this thrice-yearly fair.

After viewing events in London, Derbyshire and at the Antiques for Everyone fair in Birmingham, Fellows held their much-anticipated Blue John Sale in the Jewellery Quarter last week.

Quite possibly the largest sale of Derbyshire blue john ever held is going under the hammer at Fellows of Birmingham.

COMMENT: So we finally have a ruling from the VAT tribunal but it is not good news.

Eleven men charged with conspiracy to steal as part of a national investigation into high-value thefts at an auction house and museums have pleaded not guilty at Birmingham Crown Court.

Clarion Events have announced a change of date for the Antiques for Everyone winter fair. It will now run from November 19-22 in Hall 3 at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham.

The quarterly auction of silver and plated wares held by Fellows in the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter on September 22 included a family collection of eight apostle spoons formed several generations ago.

Plans to relocate Birmingham’s Assay office can now go ahead following the sale of its landmark building in Newhall Street.

This Art Deco 18ct gold Egyptian Revival gem-set winged scarab brooch with rose-cut diamonds will appear in the Antique & Modern Jewellery sale being held by Fellows of Birmingham.

Some of the group of youthful dealers who make up ‘Young Guns of the Antiques Trade’ have clubbed together to exhibit in their own pavilion at the ‘Antiques for Everyone’ fair next at the NEC, Birmingham from October 31 to November 3.

Although taught by Bernard Cuzner at the St Margaret School of Art and a contemporary of both Dorrie Nossiter and Katie Eadie, George Edward Hunt (1892-1960) is not the best-known jeweller of the Birmingham Group.

Fellows’ latest quarterly Vintage & Modern Wristwatch auction included a rare 1940s Rolex Oyster, the so-called ‘monobloc’ chronograph.

Clarion Events, owners of the ‘Antiques For Everyone Fairs’ in Birmingham, have announced that as of February 1 they will close their Birmingham office, thereby moving the management of the triannual fairs to the head office in London.

Clarion Events have decided to cancel ‘The National Fine Arts and Antiques Fair’, scheduled for January 16-20 at Birmingham’s NEC because of a lack of exhibitors.

Fellows of Birmingham will include paintings from the studio of portraitist Howard James Morgan (b.1949) in their next sale on December 11.

Birmingham’s NEC is once again about to host the egalitarian jamboree of the antiques world.

Among the submissions considered for the Radio 4’s popular series ‘A History of the World in 100 Objects’ were two modest pieces of silver and enamel Art Nouveau-style jewellery by Charles Horner (1837-96) of Halifax – the local jeweller turned international manufacturer who through mass-production methods, innovative designs and marketing genius took high fashion to the masses.

Suspended in a bubble of Baccarat crystal and powered only by temperature change, this Atmos 561 mechanical clock will become the first of its model to be offered at auction in the UK when it goes on sale at Fellows of Birmingham on September 3.

A pair of running spikes that belonged to double Olympic 100m and 200m gold medallist Usain Bolt sped to a £25,000 price at a Birmingham charity auction.