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TRADITIONAL British pictures have not been one of the strongest areas of the art market in the last couple of years, with sporting paintings being particularly stuck in the doldrums.

“Perhaps the last collection from a commissioning family that is likely to come onto the market” was how Berkshire auctioneer Mark Law of Law Fine Art described the remarkable sale of the Andrew Keith Collection conducted at Littlecote House, Hungerford on April 5.

THE added tax burden of Droit de Suite, which comes in at the beginning of next year, could be far worse than feared.

Maryland auction house Hantman’s will sell personal artefacts and archival material relating to Pierre August Renoir at auction on May 14.

Police have announced two dates for a roadshow of objects recovered from what is thought to be a £30m art theft spree.

For obvious reasons the Royal Doulton 'Norfolk' pattern is avidly collected in East Anglia.

TWO long-term directors of auctioneers Rosebery's are to leave southeast London to pursue a career offering antiques themed breaks from a Pyrenean château.

Right: this handsome reticulated porcelain vase and cover by George Owen was the highlight of a private and local collection of Royal Worcester porcelain sold by Glasgow auctioneers McTear’s on March 25.

A SMALL Renoir portrait painted in 1913, with an estimated value of €170,000-200,000 (£120,000-140,000), was stolen from the Tajan premises in Paris shortly before it was to be offered at a sale on March 31.

THE antiques trade is mourning the loss of two of the leading figures of their generation. Maurice Turpin (1928-2005), the Mayfair dealer in fine period furniture and objects and David Sanctuary Howard (1928-2005), Chinese export porcelain connoisseur, both died, aged 77, last week.

HE HAS suffered a few knocks to his character in his 110-year history, but when Golly’s life began over a century ago, it was hard to find anything not to love about him.

THE trade are being warned of a new internet scam that risks involving innocent dealers in money laundering – and can leave them with large bills to pay.

In 2001 international connoisseurial interest and commercial hype accompanied a major exhibition and accompanying book on the Belgian ceramicist Charles Catteau (1880-1966). There are signs that the market is now beginning to mature – minor Boch Frères works by Catteau were very soft at Bonhams in London on March 1 – but Brussels auctioneers Horta were able to offer a major signed studio piece by the artist on March 21-22.

LAW Fine Art could hardly have timed their latest sale better: a collection of Cotswolds Arts and Crafts with primary provenance by leading practitioners Barnsley, Gimson and Lethaby to be sold on April 5.

More members of the trade than ever are using the internet as a business-getting tool but few are using it effectively.

IT is every auctioneer’s dream to find a treasure in a box of odds and ends. How much more exciting it must be when that treasure also proves to be of academic importance, a candidate for the title of the earliest figure in English blue and white porcelain.

According to Brunet, Giulio Ferrario’s monumental study of Le Costume Ancien et Moderne ou Histoire de Gouvernement, de la Milice, de la Réligion, des Arts, Sciences et usages de tous les Peuples anciens et Modernes, was originally published in Milan in 143 parts between 1816 and 1834 – simultaneously in French and Italian.

History is the new ‘cookery’ on TV, and the adventures of Rifleman Sharpe have brought the Peninsular War to more general notice, but that is hardly enough to explain why military medals, for all their echoes of glory, have become a real boom area in the antiques and collectables market.

Special Postcard Auctions, Cirencester, February 28, Buyer’s premium: 10 per cent THE First World War was the main attraction at the Corinium Galleries when a single silk showing a bearded Un Diable Bleu – the nickname given to France’s gallant and celebrated Chasseurs Alpin regiment – led the day at £290, and a similar portrait bust of Un Poilu (infantryman) made £230.

Wotton Auction Rooms, Wotton-Under-Edge, February 22-23, Buyer’s premium: 15 per cent ALL manner of exotic beasts and big game hunting trophies passed through the hands of the celebrated London taxidermists Rowland Ward in the late 19th/ early 20th century.