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During his nights spent ‘fire-spotting’ for flying bombs during the Blitz, it is said the artist and occultist Austin Osman Spare (1888-1956) would while away the hours filling sketchbooks.

Sold for £1100 by Chiswick Auctions (23% buyer’s premium) on September 27 was a copy of the posthumously published, 1633 first of Henry Briggs’ Trigonometria britannica….

Children’s books sold at Forum included a couple of appealing Beatrix Potter items that were first owned by Francis William Clark, who was just two when he was sent a 1912 first of The Tale of Mr Tod.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

More than 400 objects from Howard Hodgkin’s (1932-2017) London home and studio will go under the hammer at Sotheby’s on October 24 in New Bond Street.

In 1937, artist Lotte Laserstein’s (1898-1993) promising career in Berlin came to a halt.

Keys is holding two specialist sales next year to whet the appetite. Not only does the Norfolk auction house have a shipshape selection dedicated to ‘local hero’ Nelson, but it has also secured the diploma collection of the Royal Society of Marine Artists (RSMA), Tom Derbyshire writes.

An example of the extremely rare, “surreptitious” edition of John Flamsteed’s Historia Coelestis… – a star atlas that is one of the great rarities in its field – made a record £43,000 at Forum Auctions (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) on September 27.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

The third and final exhibition of Brian Stonehouse’s (1918-98) fashion illustrations at Abbott and Holder opens this month, running from October 19-December 22.

Among the most coveted of all Martinware is the ‘Wally’ bird. These quirky and grotesque jars (really caricatures of people in Victorian London), were produced from the early 1880s onwards and were named after their maker Robert Wallace Martin, one of four brothers who ran the famous British pottery.

Auctioneer association NAVA Propertymark is partnering with Border Force on a so-called amnesty scheme for items made from endangered species.

A round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days.

The currently vibrant market for Oceanic art was made plain to staff at John Nicholson’s (24% buyer’s premium) of Fernhurst in February this year when a Maori putorino or bugle flute, estimated at £50-100, sold to French dealer for £140,000. Surely, similar good fortune would not be repeated any time soon?

Originally due to be hosted by Rome, the 1906 eruption of Vesuvius meant that London was a late replacement to hold the fourth modern Olympiad in 1908.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

The final 2017 edition of the Cotswolds Decorative Antiques & Art Fair takes place from October 27-29 in Westonbirt School, Gloucestershire.

The Bavarian capital city of Munich is an ever-expanding centre of prosperity, home to the carmaker BMW, leading insurers and major industrial concerns as well as numerous IT businesses.

MADAM – Some years ago, when I had a gallery in the King’s Road, a sculpture came up at auction which I missed, but shortly afterwards discovered to have been important.

LAPADA has begun the search for a new chief executive after the resignation of Rebecca Davies, prioritising a candidate’s ability to represent the trade’s interests to government.