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FIRMS condemned by the Information Commissioner for trying to scare businesses into paying unnecessary fees for a straightforward service have stepped up their campaign to mislead. The Antiques Trade Gazette has warned of the dubious practices of a number of firms in trying to force the trade to use their services to register under the Data Protection Act.

In addition to the implementation of VAT on seller fees reported in last week’s issue, eBay will introduce a number of substantial price increases from July 1. Most likely to upset eBay users is the imposition of a 1% charge on items carrying reserves in excess of £100. Previously that fee was just a flat rate of £1.20.

Four police forces in the south of England are investigating a series of deceptions that have hit at least half a dozen dealers for high-value items. Thames Valley, Kent, Hertfordshire and Metropolitan Police are now convinced that what first looked like a series of isolated incidents is in fact part of a systematic con being perpetrated by three runners using a number of modus operandi.

Nineteenth century walking sticks, canes, umbrellas and riding crops were one of John Stewart Parry’s favourite collecting areas – he had more than 180 of them in myriad different forms from dogs’ heads to seashells. Offered on the fifth and final day of Bruton Knowles’ sale in May– the best of the series in terms of atmosphere, said auctioneer Simon Chorley – they all sold, albeit at auction rather than retail levels.

AFTER 32 years in business, Peter Heraty of Andwells Antiques, Hartley Witney, Hampshire, tells me that on June 28 he “will lock the door for the last time”, a couple of weeks before his 66th birthday.

EXPECT around 45 dealers at Cooper Antiques Fairs’ popular Cheshire County Antiques Fair this weekend from June 20 to 22. This is Somerset-based organiser Sue Ede’s premier Northern fixture and is held three times a year at Arley Hall, near Knutsford.

What A Bobby Dazzler, by David Dickinson, published by BBC Books. ISBN 0563487240 £14.99hb

FRANCE: Knitting was a great leveller in the 18th century, it seems. An ivory pair of knitting needles, said to have once belonged to Marie-Antoinette, sold for €26,000 at Piasa (17.94% buyer’s premium) sale or royal memorabilia in Paris on May 21.

David Rogers Jones has sold a lot of Welsh dressers in his 44 years as an auctioneer in the principality but only two of this rare form incorporating a grandfather clock. Peculiar to the mid-Wales county of Merionethshire, the form, c.1810, is well-known in the reference books but this is the first the auctioneer has seen since he sold another 15-20 years ago. And it’s a great example.

EVEN if it means shipping their stock across the Atlantic, there are more and more of the British trade who are determined that the Americans reluctance to travel over here is not going to stop us selling to them over there.

Cheffins will sell a Suffolk collection of printed creamwares in their June 25-26 sale. Specialist George Archdale has made many personal discoveries during the cataloguing of the £30,000 collection, including the origin of the popular transfer Palemon and Lavinia.

World Textiles; A Concise History, by Mary Schoeser, published by Thames & Hudson (World of Art) ISBN 0500203695 £7.95sb

Textiles from Mexico, by Chlöe Sayer, published by The British Museum Press. ISBN 0714125628 £12.99sb

London 1753 by Sheila O’Connell, published by The British Museum Press. ISBN 0714126314 £24.99sb

WELL-known London dealer in all things quirky and decorative, Daniel Mankowitz, has just finished his stint at Olympia and returns to the Battersea gallery he has just opened at Studio F1, The Imperial Laundry, 71 Warriner Gardens, London SW11 4XW (Tel: 0207 498 0000).

To you and me it’s just a 1950s enamel station sign but to railwayana enthusiasts – and to Gloucestershire Worcestershire Railwayana Auctions who are currently selling it at their first private treaty auction – this is quite simply the most desirable ‘totem’ ever to come on the market. So what’s all the fuss about?

New European Union regulations regarding the collection of VAT on digital services mean that eBay will begin collecting VAT on seller fees from July 1.

The combination of a single-owner collection in a specialist niche corner of the market with a not over-large and mostly market-fresh selection of realistically estimated material were the keys to the warm reception that greeted Sotheby’s (20/12% buyer’s premium) sale of Scientific instruments in their Olympia rooms on May 28. All bar 15 of the 155 lots, just short of 90 per cent (92 per cent by value) changed hands for a total of £262,350.

November’s Asian Art in London series will again include an Award for Asian Art presented by AXA Art Insurance, the sponsors of the event for the third time. Dealers and auction houses participating in Asian Art in London are invited to enter two separate categories of the award – best two-dimensional object and best three-dimensional object – designed to reward excellence in the selling of Asian Art.

Lack of Americans hits top dealers. As American buyers stayed away, sales by 400 of Britain’s top art and antiques dealers fell by almost a tenth last year. This was one of the key findings of the fourteenth annual British Antique Dealers’ Association survey covering trading in 2001-02, completed by 58 per cent of members including well-known names such as Richard Green, Mallett and S.J. Phillips.