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The UK art and antiques trade is hastening its efforts to provide a sense of business as usual during unusual times after the UK government requested all ‘non-essential’ firms to close their premises to the public.

In this issue we feature 40 fabulous objects available to buy on dealers’ websites.

Objects relating to the rich history of Malta are perennial favourites at auction. This large early 18th century oil on canvas depicting a map of islands in the Maltese archipelago proved particularly popular in a sale of 15th to 19th century pictures held by Lempertz in Cologne.

The popular Chinese game of mah-jong is a relative newcomer.

An early coastal scene of Australia sold for more than five times its top estimate to an online buyer from New South Wales at Ewbank’s anniversary sale.

Impressionistic pastoral landscapes, often featuring cattle, are the signature works of John Alfred Arnesby Brown (1866-1955).

A very early railway guide, still in the original decorative boards, was a rare and unusual lot in a recent held by Mullock’s (20% buyer’s premium).

Sold at $60,000 (£46,295) in a recent New York sale was a broadside, Noticia Estraordinaria, printed in Mexico City in 1836, that brought news of the fall of the Alamo in March of that year.

A 19th century English painting of two prize cattle – a bull and a heifer in a field– was one of the top lots in the sale held by Bruneau in Cranston, Rhode Island, on March 14.

With the recent passing in Hong Kong of Tuyet Nguyet the oriental art world has lost one of its major personalities.

This rare poster for 'The Invisible Man', the 1933 Universal Studios horror film, realised a hammer price of $152,000 (£132,175) in Heritage Auctions’ Movie Poster sale in Dallas.

Peter Alexander Loughrey, founder of Los Angeles Modern Auctions (LAMA), passed away on March 16, at the young age of 52, of cancer.

This Yongzheng (1722-35) mark and period Eight Immortals bowl sold for £26,000 at the Hansons (20% buyer’s premium) auction in Teddington last month.

The Limerick-born painter Norman Garstin (1847-1926) was an engineer, architect, and a diamond prospector before he settled on art as a career.

The minaudière, a case for storing several personal items in a small space, first appeared during the 1930s.

With Storm Ciara getting under way (in pre-coronavirus days…) it was not, perhaps, the ideal time to launch the new weekend sales at Canterbury Auction Galleries (20% buyer’s premium).

Three Victorian bangles were among the most popular lots of Dreweatts’ (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) sale of Fine Jewellery, Silver, Watches and Objects of Vertu.

Topaz in its natural state is a golden brown to yellow, a characteristic which means it is sometimes confused with the less valuable gemstone citrine.

As a young man in the 1960s, British creative designer Anthony Redmile (b.1937) took the London interior design scene by storm. Although his work was hugely eclectic, he became best known for his quirky designs taken from the animal kingdom.