UK

UK: WHEN the wife of a descendant from the ancient Scottish clan of Macleod walked into the Sussex salerooms of Gorringes with this unassuming little silver tumbler, few realised that it had been witness to a gruesome Highlands murder more than two centuries before.

UK: IT is about as accurate as a relief map moulded from pearlware could be, but why, assembled dealers and collectors at Sotheby’s Gleneagles were asking themselves, was the title of the country to the piece, left, inscibed upside down?

UK: A PRIME piece of Gothic revival furniture, this early Victorian oak metamorphic library armchair, possibly to a design by John Loudon, made £5600 (plus 10 per cent buyer’s premium) from the Irish trade at the Salisbury salerooms of Woolley and Wallis on August 24.

UK: BOND Street dealers Mallett have revealed a year on year 18 per cent fall in pre-tax profits for the first six months of 1999 to £2.68m.

UK: DMG Antiques Fairs has moved into the London market with the acquisition of two well-known North London events, the Wembley and Lee Valley fairs.

UK: THE rumour that the senior executives who have quit Phillips Edinburgh are to set up a rival auctioneers under the Lyon & Turnbull banner has been confirmed.

UK: CONSIGNED to the Taunton rooms of Lawrence’s from a local source was this German tinplate money bank depicting Mickey Mouse with a concertina.

UK: DURING the industrial revolution, speed of production in the workplace was matched only by the consumption of beverage in the public house, and so far as the thirsty labourers were concerned one of the greatest mechanical inventions of the late 19th century was the so-called 'bar-screw'.

UK: TOP price of Christie’s South Kensington (15/10 per cent buyer’s premium) sale of toys and dolls on July 29, 1999 was the £1200 which secured this painted wood Noah’s Ark, complete with numerous carved and painted wood animals, which had been estimated at £600-800.

UK: Rival venture rumoured Five senior staff at Phillips Edinburgh, including the manager Nick Curnow, have resigned and left the company to pursue new interests.

UK: POP star John Lennon adopted a number of different guises throughout his career in the public eye – likely lad, mystic, cartoonist, photographer, songwriter – and likewise it now appears as though he was just as much of a chameleon in his sartorial life.

UK: PHILLIPS Cardiff are among the three rooms which will soon close, but they held a good sale on August 4 where this pair of English 17th century brass candlesticks, 61/2in (17cm) high were consigned to the rooms from a private source.

UK: AUGUST may be the quietest time of the year for the majority of the UK trade, but any business this week for the auctioneers and shopkeepers of Cornwall is likely to be overshadowed by a cosmic obligation on Wednesday morning.

UK: JAPANESE lacquer is a complex form of decoration requiring the painstaking application of layer upon layer and incorporating different materials to build up the finished pictorial surface.

UK: A commercially appealing example of Edwardian sporting art at the Leyburn salerooms of Tennants on July 16, this 2ft 61/2in by 231/2in (77.5 x 60cm) oil on canvas Left in Charge by Phillip Eustace Stretton, signed and dated 1904, had been consigned in untouched and original condition from a Harrogate deceased estate.

UK: PERFECT for amateur painters of ceramics or the more dedicated collector of Worcester porcelain, is this mahogany cased set of ceramic colours, left, produced by Reeves and Son for Hancock and Son, the Victorian owners of the Royal Worcester factory.

UK: FOLLOWING a meeting with LAPADA last week, Kent trading standards officers have agreed to arrange further discussions in early August between trade representatives and those who actually drafted the Kent Bill.

UK: AT THE first sale in their new Norcote saleroom near Cirencester on July 9, Moore Allen & Innocent sold this distinctive walnut leather-seated early 18th century armchair for £21,000 (plus 10 per cent buyer’s premium).

UK: THE ENORMOUS wheel screw on this simulated oven gives some clue as to the gruesome purpose of the plated contraption which turned up at the Salisbury salerooms of Woolley and Wallis on June 23.

UK: GROWING concern has led to calls for action among dealers in Kent faced with a new law which would make it a criminal offence not to register and keep detailed records when buying and selling secondhand goods in the county.