UK

LONDON: NOTTING Hill specialists in 20th century and contemporary design Themes and Variations hold an exhibition of Italian furniture and glass design at their gallery at 231 Westbourne Grove, London W11 from September 27 to October 19.

UK: Scarborough auctioneer David Duggleby has taken over Bairstow Eves’ Whitby salerooms, effectively doubling the size of his operations in North Yorkshire.

Stockmarket jitters may not have had any noticeable impact on the upper ranges of the Impressionist and Modern market but further down the scale things were looking less rosy. At Bonhams (19.5/10% buyer’s premium) on June 24 the 95-lot sale took £446,020 with a 52 per cent take-up by lot.

Ever since Sotheby’s first Rock sale in 1981, Beatle material has been on a roll. Beatle memorabilia is the undisputed market leader in this field and this autographed copy of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album sleeve, 1967, received top billing at Sotheby’s Olympia (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) 337-lot Rock/Fashion sale on June 14. This privately consigned entry was taken to £34,000 against a £6000-8000 estimate, by a private US buyer on the telephone.

THE success of the Regency mahogany bookcase, right, contributed a large chunk of the £86,000 hammer total taken at Hall’s (15% buyer’s premium) of Chester on May 31.

Sotheby’s announcement of the discovery of a cache of Nelson memorabilia that has been hidden away for almost 200 years has generated huge media interest.

Searching for the perfect piece of passementerie or some furnishing fabric to add the finishing touch to an interior? It’s worth checking out Sotheby’s two-day sale from H.W. Keil Antiques which takes place in Cheltenham next week on July 15 and 16.

THE famous Colnaghi Library is to remain with the well-known Bond Street gallery following successful negotiations by Colnaghi’s new owner Konrad Bernheimer.

PIMLICO dealer Alexander von Moltke has formed a partnership with the Manhattan interior designers Robert Marinelli and Michael Reeves who operate as RMMR.

This 415-lot sale of advertising material was one of the South Yorkshire auctioneers’ BBR's most varied of its kind to date. It ranged from four-figure rarities and pieces of museum interest through favourites like Guinness material down to affordable collectables to bring a total of £45,730.

Size was certainly a feature of Christie’s South Kensington (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) mammoth gathering of furniture and works of art held on June 12, but so was variety.

It may not look like a particularly important piece of furniture, but this early 19th century mahogany framed sofa, right, played a crucial role in the dynastic history of Cleveland Lodge, North Yorkshire.

Partridge Fine Arts plc have announced further plans to reach out to overseas markets following improved but still difficult trading during the first six months of their financial year.

THERE were few out and out stars at the Amersham Buckinghamshire rooms on 6 June but the buyers were keen enough to support the auctioneers’ contention that, with more widespread holidays and the Internet, it is only vendors who are cautious about midsummer sales.

EVER-resilient Essex organiser Robert Bailey is back on the acquisitions trail, if in a modest way. He has just taken over fellow Essex organiser Patricia Cox’s twice-yearly Tattersalls fairs at Newmarket, Suffolk and will run the next fixture from September 13 to 15.

A HARD act to follow will be Elizabeth Fell who after seven years running the whole show is leaving The Swan at Tetsworth, one of our most successful and innovative antiques centres.

Medieval illuminated manuscripts are hardly two a penny but religious works such as bibles and books of hours are much more frequently encountered than secular ones.

It is believed that only two copies of Johann Simon Kerner’s Le Raisin, ses espèces et variétées… were completed, but then this German botanist did make it hard work for himself in choosing to illustrate it with original watercolours.

AN example of every Hornby Dublo model from 1948 until the Liverpool factory went out of business in 1964 will come for up auction as a single collection at Barry Potter Auctions in Rugby on July 18.

A zeal for collecting in an age of double glazing has created a strong market for pottery window rests, which have been freed from the domestic drudgery of keeping sash windows open and elevated to the mantelpiece as decorative works of art in their own rights.