News

Bearnes, Exeter, March 23 Buyer’s premium: 15 per cent UK: HIGHLIGHTS of this sale included Thomas Short’s Comparative History of the Increase and Decrease of Mankind in England... and also a Meteorological Discourse, 1767, which, in the process of assembling historical and medical information, advocates early marriage and denounces alcohol as ‘a Stygian poison’. It sold at £100.

UK: WITH more than 500 dealers and a vast array of stock there are bound to be varying fortunes, but on the whole the Spring Antiques For Everyone fair at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre from April 8 to 11 again proved itself a fair to be reckoned with.

UK: CONSIGNED by a Stockport couple who had been keen skiers during the 1950s, this late 19th century Black Forest carved hall seat, left, proved the unexpected highlight of Bonham’s (15/10 per cent buyer’s premium) sale of general antiques in Manchester on March 24.

UK: MORE than 13,500 archaeological items were found and recorded in the first year of a Government scheme to register historical finds, a new report reveals.

UK: THE Museums and Galleries Commission has launched Cornucopia an initiative which aims to provide a complete picture of the wealth of UK museum collections.

UK: FIGURES released by the Heritage Lottery Fund show that despite the rapid decline in new grants being allocated for acquisitions by museums and galleries, existing allocations still account for a large percentage of capital spending.

Ewbank, Send, March 25 Buyer’s premium: 10 per cent UK: An amusing, illustrated letter sent by the 16-year-old Edward Coley Burne Jones to his aunt Amelia on May 7, 1849, topped this sale with a London bid of £880.