Auctioneers

The ‘retirement’ sale of dealer Paul Atkinson’s collection at Essex saleroom Sworders this week will be held exactly 50 years since he opened his first antiques shop in Derbyshire.

Despite ongoing concerns that the current economic uncertainty, anaemic growth and trade tariffs is affecting the supply of major lots, the value to auction houses of paintings by ‘big names’ was underlined at Lyon &Turnbull’s latest Modern Made auction.

The earliest known painted work by the Indian sculptor Ganpatrao Mhatre (1879-1947) drew international interest at a recent sale at Chiswick Auctions (26% buyer’s premium).

A Scottish dirk believed to have been used at the Battle of Flodden recently surfaced at Arthur Johnson & Sons in Nottingham.

One of Canaletto’s ‘prime-period’ views of Venice which once hung in 10 Downing Street has emerged at Christie’s.

An autograph album containing the signatures of notable figures from the early 20th century is to appear at Chiswick Auctions in a timed sale ending May 18.

Following opposition from the Indian state, Sotheby's took the 11th hour decision to cancel a Hong Kong auction of a collection of relics linked to the historical Buddha.

The largest group of works by Tirzah Garwood (1908-51) to ever come on the open market in one go will be offered at Cheffins later this month.

The National Gallery in London has acquired two Old Masters, one of which is a remarkable 16th-century altarpiece bought for £16.4m in a private treaty sale brokered by Sotheby’s.

A handwritten first-hand account of the Indian Mutiny contained in a journal kept from April 1857 to March 1858 hammered down at six times its £600-800 estimate to achieve £5200 at Reeman Dansie in Colchester on May 1.

The latest jobs moves and appointments across the world of art and antiques