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The now-defunct firm of Hedges & Butler (est.1667) was one of the oldest wine merchants in England, originally based by the Thames on a site now occupied by Charing Cross Station. The name of the company has now disappeared, but what its own publicity described as “our very interesting collection of old Viniana” provided an eye-catching highlight for Bonhams’ (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) otherwise fairly routine mixed sale of art and antiques in Knowle.

Julia Margaret Cameron: 19th Century Photographer of Genius, by Colin Ford published by National Portrait Gallery Publications. ISBN 1855145065 £40hb

If, as a recent opinion poll has suggested, Sir Winston Churchill was voted the greatest-ever Briton, and Mouton-Rothschild’s 1945 vintage is, as Michael Broadbent described it in his Great Vintage Wine Book, “a Churchill of a wine”, is Mouton-Rothschild ’45, ergo, the Greatest Ever Wine?

The Lunar Men: The Friends Who Made The Future by Jenny Uglow, published by Faber & Faber. ISBN 0571196470 £25 hb

Captain John Smith’s A True Relation of such occurrences and accidents of noate as hath hapned in Virginia since the first planting of that Collony... , the first printed account of the settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607 – or, “the first permanent English colony in the New World, and hence the direct progenitor of the United States”, to quote Boies Penrose – is one of the legendary rarities of early Americana.

Inspired by the catacombs of Somerset House, the street lighting of Pall Mall and, above all, the Babylonian splendour of the new Houses of Parliament, artist John Martin’s 1841 oil on canvas Pandemonium was an apocalyptic vision of Victorian London that played well to the post-September 11 sensibilities of the US picture trade at Christie’s King Street sale of the Forbes collection on February 19-20.

When it comes to wall power there is nothing like a poster to add presence and focus to an interior, and for iconic or cult status, a film poster is hard to beat.

Contemporary art continues to outperform many of the more traditional categories of art and antiques, according to a new report by insurers Zurich.

Scrap it or at least make life easier for the trade, new study demands: THE European Union should look again at the whole issue of Import VAT and art market red tape, say The European Fine Art Foundation.

Mallett revealed a 47.6 per cent rise in turnover and a 20 per cent rise in pre-tax profits in 2002, described by chairman George Magan as “one of the most challenging years” in the history of the London dealership.

SOTHEBY’S have announced that they have given up trying to find a buyer for the controlling stake of disgraced former chairman A. Alfred Taubman.

IN the wake of recent reports on credit card fraud emanating from Indonesia, dealer association LAPADA are advising members on how best to protect themselves.

IF THERE is one objet d’art that best characterises the antiques market at present it is the curate’s egg – good in parts, but bad overall. The flawed ovum’s brighter regions encompass most low-value collectables – ceramics included.

FOLLOWING last week’s Dealers’ Diary report that Bargain Hunt was banned from the Great Northern Antiques and Collectors’ Fair, another organiser says the TV show is not welcome at his event.

AFTER what seems an unending number of complaints about unscrupulous online fair guides charging for unwanted advertising, the Antiques Trade Gazette has now heard about what appears to be a new scam.

SOTHEBY’S have started a new staff review and admit that further redundancies are likely.

European Union rules to combat money laundering due to come into force in June will oblige businesses accepting cash payments of more than €15,000 (£9400) to adopt a raft of new procedures.

NEW YORK specialist dealers in movie posters Posteritati hold some beguiling selling shows, but they look like being onto an international winner with their current one – French Gangsters & The New Wave – which runs at their gallery at 239 Centre Street until March 4.

The Red House, the former home of designer William Morris acquired last month by the National Trust, is due to open to the public in Bexleyheath later this summer. But aficionados of the Arts and Crafts movement who cannot bear to wait that long should take a look at the Clarke Gammon sale in Guildford on February 25, where the residual contents of the Victorian house are being dispersed.

NEW YORK: THE North American linkage between gardens and antiques – one some English dealers have benefited from – reaches new heights from February 20 to 23 when New York-based Stella Show Management mount a fair dedicated to outdoor collectables.