Auctions

Fancy spending thousands of pounds on a lovely lump of vomit?

Size and value often have an inverse relationship in the antiques world where small can be beautiful.

This recently rediscovered painting of Sir Winston Churchill by Walter Sickert (1860-1942) will be offered for sale for the first time at the 20/21 British Art Fair.

Sent for auction by a local lady who had been gifted it some 20 years ago, a late 19th century Koran ensured that the latest book sale at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood was their most successful ever.

The medal group awarded to the captain of the Lusitania on its final voyage, William Turner, is on offer at Lockdales of Ipswich, Suffolk.

Among the highlights of the current Wilkes & Curtis auction is a Fatimid gold dinar from the reign of the Caliph al-Hakim (AD996-1021).

South Pacific war clubs continue to strike high prices at auctions, as this Tongan example sold in Stafford this month shows.

The UK government has placed a temporary export bar on the earliest known on-the-spot depiction of Niagara Falls which sold at Christie’s South Kensington earlier this year.

West Sussex auctioneers Bellmans enjoyed considerable success on August 5, with a single-owner collection of around 30 Indian and Tibetan bronzes collected by a private vendor in the 1960s.

Dealers, collectors and auctioneers of antique firearms are being invited to a meeting in London to discuss proposed changes to the law governing the sale and ownership of such weapons.

Quite possibly the largest sale of Derbyshire blue john ever held is going under the hammer at Fellows of Birmingham.

An impressive collection of pictures, studio pottery, furniture, personal effects and letters has been consigned to auctioneers Mitchells of Cockermouth from the estate of Mary Burkett, former director of Abbot Hall art gallery in Kendal.

Guillaume Cerutti, chief executive of Sotheby’s France and European deputy chairman, is to leave and join Christie’s as president for London, Continental Europe, the Middle East, Russia and India.

Two regional auctioneers – Halls of Shrewsbury and Bigwoods of Stratford-upon-Avon – are joining forces to conduct an ‘on-the-premises’ sale of art and antiques owned by the colourful publisher Felix Dennis (1947-2014).

The highlight of Chorley’s latest two-day sale at Prinknash Abbey was this unusual late 18th century Lombardy escritoire.

For many of the 40- and 50-somethings who trawl the internet for Star Wars toys, the ‘holy grail’ object is the Palitoy Death Star play set.

Showground fair organisers have reacted with disappointment to the news that exhibitors must pay 20% VAT on pitch rentals.

JUST a month before their first scheduled sale, online auctioneers Fine Art Bourse have gone into receivership.

Paperweights from makers such as Caithness, Mdina, Selkirk, Wedgwood and Whitefriars go under the hammer at auctioneers Moore Allen & Innocent in Cirencester on August 7.

The 2015 NAVA Auctioneer of the Year competition takes place on September 23 at the Oxford Belfry.