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The Great Hall in the privately owned 18th century Grade I-listed Crowcombe Court in the Quantock Hills, west Somerset, near Taunton, is an intricately decorated room which makes it an ideal setting for many events.

Betty Klaber, together with her daughter Pamela, started their ceramics business Klaber & Klaber, in 1969, specialising in 18th century European porcelain and enamels.

MADAM – Further to Mr Adam’s letter in ATG No 2393, and Mr Lewis’ letter in ATG No 2392, the facts that I supplied in my letter about the history of the Ordinary Bicycle and its incorrect renaming are entirely accurate.

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period May 16 - 22, 2019. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

'Grand Fourmilier' (1906), a large bronze sculpture of a giant anteater, is distinctive among a collection of bronze sculptures by Rembrandt Bugatti (1884-1916) offered at a Sladmore Gallery exhibition.

Two rackets rackets (no, you aren’t seeing double) are on offer at the exhibition '#7 – It’s a Magic Number', organised by Cotswolds dealers Manfred Schotten and Christopher Clarke Antiques.

Blissfully unaware of the BADA logo controversy, the big Ordinary Bicycle debate, a notorious novel, football bribery in 1904 and the Pepys family, here is Gunna admiring the front cover of ATG No 2392 featuring another handsome canine (picture posted on Instagram by owners, dealership Leslie & Baggott).

The market for tribal art covering works from Africa, Oceania and the Americas has a global reach these days. While particular centres form cultural and commercial hubs (New York, Paris and Brussels in particular), you can find fairs and shows, shops and auctions around the world. Recent sale highlights and previews from some of the upcoming auctions and fairs are featured here.

As So Last Century, Alison Davis and Alan Old run vintage fairs at three south London venues: St Dunstan’s College in Catford, the White Eagle Club in Tooting and at Beckenham Place Mansion in Beckenham Place Park.

Rusty, dusty and damaged, but bearing the magic of Marklin, a pre-First World War toy train emerged from the garage at a local house clearance. It starred in a collectors sale at the Cumbrian saleroom of 1818 Auctioneers (20% buyer’s premium inc VAT).

Three modestly valued works selling at regional sales below £800, including an oil on canvas by Rowland Hill of a Donegal bay.

The Watch Sale at Fellows in Birmingham on June 18 includes arare Rolex Oyster Cosmograph Daytona chronograph with ‘reverse panda’ white on black dial.

Antiquities and tribal art will be on offer at Chiswick Auctions in west London on June 27.

The death of John Hayward on May 12 has robbed the world of medals and medal collecting of its most colourful personality.

MADAM – It was counsel for the crown Mervyn Griffith-Jones, and not the 'Lady Chatterley’s Lover' trial judge Sir Laurence Byrne in R v Penguin Books Ltd, November 1960 (see Books Supplement, ATG No 2393), who asked the jury in his opening remarks: “Is it a book that you would wish your wife or your servants to read?”

After more than 50 years as a designer for international stamps and banknotes printer Waterlow & Sons, Leonard Douglas Fryer (1891-1965) retired to enjoyable obscurity at his home in Ilford.

While the 19th century English painter John Frederick Lewis (1805-76) is chiefly remembered for his major Orientalist creations – several of which have sold for more than £1m at auction – much less is known about his early career.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from May 28-June 8, 2019.

MADAM – The recent offering in Wiltshire of a gold pocket watch presented to the then FA Cup-winning manager of Manchester City, Tom Maley, in 1904 is perhaps a reminder that corruption in the football world is not a new phenomenon.

Catalogued as ‘exceptional’, this farmhouse refectory table fulfilled the auctioneer’s adjective in more than one way at Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) sale in Dorchester on April 26.