West Midlands

Shropshire is a fertile county for antiques centres and shops.

A single coffee can from the Baltic Service was among the highlights of Hansons’ (25% buyer’s premium) sale on June 9, selling to a collector at £2000.

Organisers prepare for events in Worcestershire and Shropshire including new fairs.

Believed to date from the mid-17th century, this double portrait is a fascinating painting on many accounts.

Kashmir sapphires have acquired a near-legendary status, due to their lustrous cornflower colour, soft velvety texture and extreme rarity.

The stopwatch used by English referee Jack Taylor in the 1974 World Cup final sold for a within-estimate £3300 at Fellows (23/15% buyer’s premium) in Birmingham.

Halls’ (23% buyer’s premium) Summer auction in Shrewsbury on June 16 included a private collection of nine pieces of Boucheron jewellery.

This silver salmon corkscrew, hallmarked Chester 1914, can be found in LAPADA’s dedicated pavilion at The Game Fair.

This Omega Seamaster 300, issued to members of the British Army in the 1960s, appeared at Fellows (23%/15% buyer’s premium) in Birmingham.

The 27 animal models created for Beswick by Colin Melbourne represented the firm at its most avant garde.

The start of May is likely to be a busy period with outside fairs and markets opening up around England and Wales after a protracted lockdown hibernation. Here is a snapshot of a few of them.

More than 20 LAPADA dealers have signed up to take stands at The Game Fair this summer.

Tony Wittridge is so smitten with the antiques business he is opening in the grounds of Kyre Park, a large country estate at Tenbury Wells in Worcestershire, that he is planning a move to the county from Essex.

Kingham & Orme’s (23% buyer’s premium) first-ever specialist auction of Jewellery & Watches took place on February 19 with just over 200 lots.

A recent Fine Jewellery sale at Fellows (23% buyer’s premium) in Birmingham included an unusual Victorian necklace.

A note penned in December 1963 by Mary Elizabeth Smith from The Mendips, Menlove Avenue, Liverpool, to a Miss V Stoker of 54 Pirton Road, Hitchin, sold for £1300 to a UK online bidder at Wolverhampton saleroom Cuttlestones (17.5% buyer’s premium) on March 19.

While the Grand Hotel, Birmingham, may not have the same ring as Hotel California, in the Sixties it was the place to check in. And even leave afterwards.

The work of French designer Fred Brouard (1944-99) is not uncommon at sales in France and the US but seldom appears at auction in the UK.