UK

Farms still supply Herefordshire sale with original oak furniture UK: THE monthly two-day sale in Herefordshire got off to a rather unusual start with the first day largely given over to specialist items like instruments – both musical and medical – and collectables, but bidders responded with enthusiasm.

UK: FOR some odd reason, the books in the golf memorabilia sale held by Christie’s South Kensington (Buyer’s premium: 17.5/10 per cent) on February 28 were mostly offered as job lots – and it would seem that a number of those lots contained books that should, and in sales past, certainly would have been offered separately.

The wind has always been blowing strongly in one direction in the market for American weather vanes, and this 1930s example, left, offered at the Harrogate rooms of Morphet’s (10 per cent buyer’s premium) on March 15 was always expected to sell for a high price.

Age, practical usage and quality have always made for healthy prices for looking glasses and when one adds today’s demand for the decorative it was not too suprising to see this fine late Regency rococo frame lead the Cheltenham sale held by Bruton Knowles (10 per cent buyer’s premium) back on February 27 where it sold at £12,000.

UK: Christie’s are set for a dramatic shake-up of their UK operations with the announcement that they are “exploring a number of options for our future in London including consolidation into a single site”.

UK: CONFUSION reigned this week as to exactly what measures will be introduced with the adoption of the Kent County Council and Medway Council Bills.

UK: LEONHARD Fuch’s De Historia Stirpium..., first issued in Basel in 1542, contains over 500 full-page botanical woodcuts, one shown bottom right, but while it is not unusual to find a portrait of the author in any book, this work also contains portraits of the artists, Heinrich Füllmaurer and Albert Meyer, and the man who made the woodblocks from their originals, Veit Rudolphe Speckle.

TO commemorate the centenary of Queen Victoria’s death the V&A’s major spring exhibition is Inventing New Britain: The Victorian Vision, from April 5 to July 29. Co-curated by Paul Atterbury, the exhibition takes as its themes how a modern Britain emerged during the Queen’s all-powerful reign, and the way in which the Victorians have shaped our lives. Three books have been published by V&A Publications to accompany the exhibition.

UK: West Country auctioneers Bearne’s of Exeter made headline news last May when they sold a collection of vintage 1850s photographs from William, 2nd Earl of Craven for £1.4m.

UK: THE current strength of the silver market for unusual pieces has been discussed in theAntiques Trade Gazette of recent weeks and the Cambridge auctioneers two-day sale showed that the trend is no different in East Anglia.

UK: AMONG the spicier silver prices realised at Manchester-based Capes Dunn’s February sale of jewellery, silver, plated wares, watches and gold coins, were a small cylindrical nutmeg grater with pull-off domed lid and two ribbed girdles.

UK: BOXLOCK shotguns are the most common of British fowling firearms and those with bolt-actions are certainly not unusual, but this particular model, left, aroused great interest at Weller and Dufty’s (15 per cent premium) arms and armour auction in Birmingham on March 14.

UK: THE Sussex sale was dominated by the £98,000 bid for L.S. Lowry’s oil on plywood Old Houses (Art Market, Antiques Trade Gazette No. 1479, March 10) but this record bid for the rooms was backed up by a number of pieces of good-quality furniture which saw competitive bidding.

UK: THE Cotswolds seems the natural environment for oak dressers and a couple were on offer here.

Lowly-rated architect’s table sells at £24,000 UK: OCCASIONALLY a dream sale comes along for the auctioneer that needs no selling and takes off for no apparent reason. It happened at Nottingham where Neales’ specialist Bruce Fearne enjoyed taking some startling bids from privates and trade alike, for no obvious reason.

UK: PEOPLE are rightly reluctant to travel to foot-and-mouth infected countryside, and although the local area was free from the disease, the February sale at Devon-based S.J. Hales was attended by just 25 bidders in the room.

UK: THE Kent and Medway Bills go the House of Lords on Thursday (March 29) for the final reading before Royal Assent puts them on the statute book.

One of eight colour printed and hand-finished plates from the only known copy of a work that Fabien Gautier D’Agoty issued in 1777, apparently as a prospectus for his Histoire naturelle ... Règne Minéral.

UK: WELSH organisers (and occasional ceramics dealers) Robert and Carol Pugh make their debut as the new owners of the Little Chelsea Antiques Fair at Chelsea Old Town Hall, London SW3 on April 2 and 3.

UK: The name of Gillows, never unfashionable, is going through one of its periodic high points and this was more than confirmed at the March 1 sale held at Leamington Spa by Locke & England (121/2% buyer’s premium) when they could offer the mid-19th century amboyna and gilt embellished centre table.