UK

UK: TEA caddies and Tunbridgeware are both hot sellers at present and the combination in the form of this pretty piece, right, was irresistible to half a dozen bidders at the two-day sale held by Rendells (10 per cent buyer’s premium) at Ashburton on May 24 and 25.

UK: A HAMMER total of £94,350 from the 91 pieces to get away among the 109 offerings was an excellent start to the month when the Chester rooms could offer some real quality on a day dedicated to clocks and barometers.

UK: QUALITY items eagerly contested, patchy bidding on low to middle-range entries – a familiar countrywide pattern was evident at Bristol but it was a very unfamiliar piece which led the day.

UK: CHRISTIE'S South Kensington (15/10 per cent buyer’s premium) chalked up another strong result to add to their successful run of mixed- and single-owner Staffordshire pottery auctions with the sale on June 14 of 273 lots from the Oxfordshire dealer Robin Sanders and Sons. A selection that also took in blue and white pearlware and ironstone tablewares but majored on Staffordshire figures, it saw all but 13 lots change hands netting £145,000.

UK: ONE rarely gets the chance to auction an auctioneer’s advertisement, at least in ceramic form, but this is what happened when Greenslade Taylor Hunt (15 per cent buyer's premium) offered this matched pair of early 19th century Derby figures, right, at their Taunton salerooms on May 31.

UK: ONE hundred and seventy five years of independent ownership is an awe-inspiring feat in an antiques market that has changed beyond recognition in the past decade. But this Manchester firm has moved with the times by issuing digital photographs and publishing their catalogue on the Internet.

UK: THE market for travel posters is particularly strong with Christie's South Kensington frequently holding specialised sales. Another London house, Onslows (15/10 per cent buyer’s premium), of Fulham relished in the strength of posters at their sale at The Carisbrooke Hall, Marble Arch from May 16-17 when this advert, right, for Bournemouth designed by H.G. Gawthron in 1930 went over estimate.

THE British Antiques and Collectables Awards were presented at a packed ceremony at the Dorchester Hotel in London’s Park Lane on June 19.

UK: COLLECTORS’ sales are more insulated against market polarisation than most other areas with the niche appeal of the generally more affordable entries attracting greater numbers of private buyers. This sale, with most lots selling under £500, was no exception, with an 88 per cent take-up resulting in a £51,000 total.

Furniture in country house is eclipsed by piece found in a drawer UK: PAPERWEIGHTS have not hit any sort of headlines in years and anyone outside the coterie of (mostly American) collectors may have assumed they had been relegated to the status of murder weapons in Thirties whodunits – but not so. One became the totally unexpected star of the contents of The Thorne, a country house at Bethsersden which were removed to the salerooms at Canterbury.

UK: CORNISHWARE may be at the lower-priced end of the ceramics market but there is no shortage of enthusiasm as was evident when this 71/4in (18.5cm) jar, illustrated here, sold at £600 at the ‘Kitchenalia’ sale held by niche-market specialist BBR (10 per cent buyer’s premium) on May 20.

UK: ONE of numerous full-page woodcut illustrations of bridles, bits, etc. to be found in a 1602 Naples first of Piero Antonio Ferraro’s Cavallo Frenato..., bound in contemporary limp vellum, that sold at £1950 (Traylen) in the Dominic Winter, Swindon (buyer's premium 12.5 per cent) sale.

UK: TOPPING Christie’s June 14 English furniture sale at £420,000 was this pair of marble-topped side tables attributed to the Cobb and Vile partnership.

UK: STILL relatively new to the auctioneering world as independent auctioneers, the husband and wife team of S.J. Hales (15 per cent buyer’s premium) have already built up a nationwide reputation for Staffordshire and one that was enhanced at their May 30 sale when they could offer this rare early Samuel Alcock porcellaneous pair of leopard groups.

UK: ALTHOUGH there were no huge prices among the 416 lots at these Devon rooms, there was success across the wide range of offerings.

UK: ONE of only three in existence, this Sir Stanley Matthews Royal Doulton Character jug shocked all in attendance at Louis Taylor in Stoke-in-Trent on June 11.

UK: IN a very busy month for the ceramics world ahead of June’s International Ceramics Fair in London, a couple of unusual items led the first day of this Staffordshire sale although neither was from the Potteries.

UK: CERAMICS took the top spots at this 1650-lot Cotswolds sale in the form of a pair of mid-19th century Continental majolica stick stands.

UK: MEDALS took the top three slots in this toys, juvenilia and ephemera sale but there was a healthy take-up for toys from collectors and from a couple of Liverpool-based specialist dealers at this 537-lot auction that netted Biddle & Webb around £25,000.

Pictured here is a selection of books sold in auctions in London and New York.