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THE Wallace Collection have gone into partnership with French art training provider IESA to develop a postgraduate diploma in the History and Business of Art and Collecting.

A NEW company aiming to capture a market that even the top firms have failed to corner – selling high end art and antiques online – are trying a fresh approach. iGavel are headed by Vancouver-based Lark E. Mason, Jr, a 24-year veteran employee of Sotheby’s whose last role was director of online auctions for sothebys.com.

If antique glass was the focal point of the celebrated Harvey’s Wine Museum collection, sold in three parts by Bonhams in the last month, then the first purchase for the fledgling museum in the mid 1950s had been the Pratt collection of silver wine labels.

AMONG the London salerooms offering a good selection of antique glasswares in the last fortnight, Christie’s South Kensington had a mixed-owner 280-lot selection of British and Continental glass to offer as part of their monthly ‘At Home’ series.

In terms of collecting focus, much of the pre-sale attention for the Harvey’s Wine Museum sale at Bonhams centred on the October 1 glass and ceramics auction.

According to Themes & Variations, the West London dealers in 20th century decorative arts and contemporary design, for the past three decades minimalism has developed alongside a taste for baroque extravagance, but without converging.

WHEN it comes to the traditional English country house nothing is more redolent of the look of the Victorian and Edwardian periods than the old tack and gun rooms of the country lodge, replete with saddles, whips, boots and mounted trophies such as perch and stag.

What a novel idea Kent dealer Neville Pundole has come up with for his current exhibition at the Neville Pundole Gallery, The Friary, Canterbury.

It might not look much, but the humble unglazed earthenware vessel, pictured right, is believed to be the earliest form of watering pot made in Britain. It’s also the precursor to the metal watering can that did not adopt its recognisable shape until the 17th century.

Bill Blass was a catwalk king, now his furnishings are set to wow the crowds: Designer Bill Blass, whose elegant outfits have been a favourite amongst the well dressed for decades, came fairly late to serious antique buying, but once the well known fashion icon started collecting in the 1970s, he made up for lost time.

ONE of the best-known figures at quality fairs, Marlborough, Wiltshire period furniture specialist William Cook has just published his third catalogue, and I must say it is as good an example of its type as I have seen all year. Not only is it superbly produced with excellent illustrations, but Billy Cook’s long captions are an informative and enjoyable read.

BRITISH Art Market Federation president Lord Brooke is stepping up pressure on the Government to fund a workable database of stolen art. His latest call for Whitehall to support the art and antiques trade in preventing dealings in stolen objects came during the second reading of the Dealing in Cultural Objects (Offences) Bill in the House of Lords.

FOR Harvey's read Bristol Cream, but there is far more to this celebrated brand than the nation’s best known sherry.

Ian Turner’s 142-lot collection of Monart sold by Christie’s South Kensington was the largest auction dispersal of this colourful Scottish art glass to date.

A series of 73 stereoscopic photocards of Captain Scott’s first expedition to the Antarctic in Discovery, the National Antarctic Expedition of 1901-04, was sold at £1250 in a book, card and ephemera sale held by Acorn Auctions of Salford on September 9, where a collection of 19th century stereoscopic photographs of Sussex scenes, 51 in all, reached £200.

THREE other Stow-on-the-Wold members are also holding selling exhibitions from October 11 to 25 and a contrasting trio they are. Baggott Church Street hosts A Sense of Proportion which displays some specially chosen pieces of period furniture commissioned by the middle classes to furnish their townhouses and country manors.

FROM a record 110 exhibitors just two years ago, when business was not exactly booming, expect no more than 50 at this autumn’s LAPADA Fine Art and Antiques Fair, to be held from October 8 to 12 at the Commonwealth Institute Galleries, Kensington High Street, London W8.

FOLLOWING an evening charity opening this Wednesday the 38th Irish Antique Dealers Fair runs in the main hall of the Royal Dublin Society, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 from October 2 to 5.

Victorian Decorative Glass: British Designs 1850-1914 by Mervyn Gulliver, published by Schiffer Books, distributed by Bushwood Books. ISBN 0764315988 £59.95

Originality and Initiative: The Arts and Crafts Archives at Cheltenham, edited by Mary Greensted and Sophia Wilson, published by Lund Humphries in association with Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum. ISBN 0853318735 £25sb