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The timing could have been a disaster, but three dealers who opened an antiques centre in Dorking at the beginning of the month have been rewarded for their ambition by a very encouraging start.

The simple pair of leather football boots on offer at East Bristol Auctions (17.5% buyer’s premium) this summer was not as flash as today’s examples in all colours and emblazoned with all kinds of branding and personalised messages.

At the age of 36 most footballers have either hung their boots up or are about to. By that stage Ronnie Simpson had experienced a decent enough career: including two FA Cup wins with Newcastle.

Keeping score in the earliest days of the Football League was not as easy as checking the internet.

Although a smaller affair than the much better-known Isle of Wight festival of the same year, the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music, held on June 27-28, 1970, at the Shepton Mallet showground, boasted perhaps the greatest UK music festival line-up of all time.

Nathan Alexander is a busy man. He has opened three antiques centres in three years with two in Southampton and a third in Fareham, all under the same title of Robin’s Nest Emporium.

MADAM – During these challenging Covid-19 times, it is encouraging to note that stamps, at least, have held up well, perhaps because philately is the perfect hobby for the home buyer.

The FA Cup proved a happy hunting ground for Norman Whiteside in his playing days and at auction many years later the competition was still proving to be a big winner for him.

As with so many other sales schedules for the summer, Graham Budd’s June two-day auction had to be cancelled due to the coronavirus lockdown. However, he has just announced that he will be holding his next on November 9-10 as a live ‘broadcast’ auction (all forms of bidding except for in the room, viewing by timed appointment at the firm’s Enfield premises).

Dovehouse Fine Antiques Fairs’ mid-summer fair at the Dorking Halls on August 16 has been cancelled.

The Petworth Park Antiques & Fine Art Fair can go ahead as planned in September after the National Trust deemed it an ‘outdoor’ event.

A pair of imperially inscribed Qianlong (1735-96) mark and period famille rose wall vases set a house record for Asian art at Roseberys.

The ‘high season’ of summer auctions in London held by Sotheby’s and Christie’s generated £205.8m including premium last week.

The recent Mallams (22.5% buyer’s premium) live online sale of Chinese, Japanese and Islamic art in Cheltenham included Chinese works on paper and textiles from a relative of Katherine Talati (1922-2015).

Two works by Fred Stead (1863-1940) drew strong interest at Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium) in West Sussex thanks, in part, to here-to-be-sold estimates. They were being consigned from a deceased estate.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from August 4-20, 2020.