West Midlands

Mulling over her 2017 experience, B2B Events’ director Helen Yourston said Malvern is proving to be a marvel.

Amid current stories in the media of drastic Royal Navy cutbacks, it is difficult to imagine a sizeable task force of British ships sailing thousands of miles to fight a war. But in 1982 HMS Brilliant (F90) was part of that fleet heading to the South Atlantic to take on, and beat, the Argentinians who had invaded the Falkland Islands.

The £1.1m paid for this Graff yellow diamond ring at Fellows on December 7 makes it the top price achieved in the UK regions this year.

This enamel copy of Hans Holbein’s Whitehall mural portrait is by William Bone Senior (1792-1846) – second-generation member of the Bone dynasty of miniaturists and enamellists.

Founded three years ago, the Whitchurch, Shropshire, firm of Trevanion & Dean (19% buyer’s premium) enjoyed its best sale so far when the 950 lots, ranging from Renaissance art to contemporary glass, totalled £250,000 on November 18.

“This year the Malvern Flea has been the prize in our portfolio,” says Helen Yourston, director of B2B Events.

The sluggish area of Victorian genre painting provided Brightwells (20% buyer’s premium) with one of its top-sellers at the November 8-9 sale in Leominster.

For a relatively brief period during the 19th century, small silver boxes decorated with British landmarks found an eager following among the honeymooners and day-trippers of Georgian and Victorian England.

Estimated at £12,000-18,000, this impressive pair of Regency four-light candelabra dipped just under hopes to sell for £11,500 at Fellows in Birmingham.

Anita (1930-2015) and Irvin Garfield Schorsch (1927-2014) were not typical Americana collectors.

This archetypal still-life by Cecil Kennedy (1905-97) topped Halls’ (20% buyer’s premium) £300,000 auction on October 18.

Porcelain society event spearheads ceramics spotlight at winter 'Antiques for Everyone'.

Pictured is a happy customer making a purchase at Arthur Swallow Fairs’ first monthly Monday winter drive-in indoor antiques market held in the Blackdown Building at the Stoneleigh Park Estate, near Coventry, in October.

Susan and Mike Hunter of Twists Glass Studio in Selkirk on the Scottish Borders are two of the five newcomers to the National Glass Fair at the National Motor Museum in Solihull on Sunday, November 12.

Details of the annual National Vintage Tackle Fair have been announced by vintage tackle dealer John Andrews, who is also the organiser.

Singer-songwriter Rebecca Newman will be scaling up Emma and Oli Jones’ antiques, art and vintage fair this autumn.

Two Cs' fair at Chateau Impney Hotel is an impressive setting but popular venue means securing dates is difficult...

Furniture and decoratives dealer Paul Burnett from the Forest of Dean, gives an expansive welcome to buyers at his stand at a recent Two Cs antiques fair at the Chateau Impney Hotel, near Droitwich. He will be exhibiting at the organisers’ two-day fair on November 11-12.