Worcestershire

The Cotswolds will be welcoming a new auction firm when two ceramics dealers launch Kingham & Orme Auctioneers next week.

Around 5000 people will be streaming through the gates from seven in the morning this bank holiday Monday, August 26, for B2B Events’ hectic flea and collectors’ fair at the Three Counties Showground in Worcestershire.

In a letter to customers, Andrew Granger, the boss of now defunct saleroom The Auction Company Broadway, has spoken of his “deep regret and sorrow” at its closure.

The second most significant gem of its type in the country – a Parthian-Sassanian intaglio (in brown-grey agate) – has been stolen from a house near Evesham.

Ramraiders have stolen more than 50 silver and jewellery items worth up to £20,000 from an auction house in Worcestershire.

IN the early hours of August 6, a Henry Moore sketch and two oil paintings were stolen from Trinity House on the High Street in Broadway, south Worcestershire.

WORCESTERSHIRE auctioneer Philip Serrell has been asked to sell, at short notice, Cotswolds School furniture from the dormitories of Hazelrigg Hall, now part of Loughborough University.

On May 14, Malvern auctioneer Philip Serrell will sell this 3.5oz silver floral engraved snuffbox marked for Nathaniel Mills, Birmingham 1836.

After more than 50 years in the business, Worcestershire auctioneer Philip Laney is to close his firm and take up a consultancy post with chartered surveyors and land agents Doorbars.

DMG Antiques Fairs have sold the two Malvern fairs as part of their widespread revamp.

The well-known Worcestershire firm Andrew Grant are expected to close their fine art auction department.

THE engaging subject and large size of this 16 x 13in (41 x 33cm) Berlin-style porcelain plaque, right, helped it to the top slot at the January 18 sale held by Philip Laney (15% buyer’s premium) at the Malvern Auction Centre.

UNDER the name Art Nouveau Originals, specialist dealer Cathy Turner is a very well-known figure on the fairs circuit, but she will now be even better known since she has just purchased The Bindery Gallery at 69 High Street, Broadway, Worcestershire (Tel: 01386 854645).

DECORATIVE, functional and large – the undisputed highlight of Andrew Grant's (15% buyer's premium) 525-lot May 13 sale was a gilt-framed hall mirror catalogued as in the manner of William Kent.

Right: this fine Nantgarw porcelain plate, once thought to be painted by Thomas Baxter and traditionally known as the ‘Three Graces’, was part of a collection of porcelain offered by Worcestershire auctioneers Philip Serrell on May 20.

THIS fine Nantgarw porcelain plate, right, once thought to be painted by Thomas Baxter and traditionally known as the ‘Three Graces’, is part of a collection of porcelain to be offered by Worcestershire auctioneers Philip Serrell on May 20.

CHARLES Baldwin’s stock-in-trade as a porcelain artist was swans in flight, but the celebrated Royal Worcester painter did occasionally apply his meticulous technique to other subjects including mammals and other birds. The sale held by Philip Laney (10% buyer’s premium) at the Malvern Auction Centre on April 6 included the impressive vase, top right, decorated by Baldwin with goldfinches.