Front Page and News

Tom Mason’s collecting bug began when his father sent him postcards and gifts from places where he was posted during the Second World War. By his early teens he had started his own collection of military memorabilia and began what would become a lifetime obsession with the American Civil War. Pen pals in the US and Canada helped him search for relics.

Lots Road Auctions is to expand its range and frequency of sales as it celebrates 40 years in business.

Sphairistike, an ancient Greek term meaning skill in playing at ball, was the name Major Walter Wingfield chose for the game he patented and first advertised early in 1874.

Dealers and collectors who last week brought a judicial review of the Ivory Act 2018 must wait until November for judgment in the case.

The earliest days of Tottenham Hotspur FC are revealed in a remarkable hand-written ledger coming up at auction in a November 4-5 London sale.

A large collection of Rockingham porcelain will be on display at Wentworth Woodhouse next month ahead of its sale at auction. The Rowley collection, numbering 120 lots, was assembled by a collector hailing from Sprotborough, Doncaster, who now lives in Buckinghamshire.

The most important example of Qing glassware to appear at auction sold for HK$180m (£18m) – the highlight of Sotheby’s recent series in Hong Kong.

Last week’s on-the-premises sale at Athelhampton House in Dorset was a near sell-out with a hammer price of close to £1.2m.

A Qianlong period export plaque decorated after a scene by Louis-Marin Bonnet (1736-93) was among the Fine Art Asia highlight sales.

A State Porcelain Factory figure by Natalina Danko (1892-1943) emerged at auction in Grantham earlier this month.

For the first time in more than a decade a new antiques shop has opened on Westbourne Grove, close to the famed antiques district Portobello Road.

A group of drawings and a sketchbook compiled by an artist assigned to Napoleon’s campaigns in Prussia and Poland in 1806-07 has been secured by the Louvre at a Toulouse auction.

Banksy’s derisive portrayal of The House of Commons reduced to an assembly of primates achieved a record £8.5m (plus premium) in Sotheby’s Contemporary Art auction on October 3.

A missing Pugin parliamentary letter box has been returned to the Palace of Westminster more than 100 years after it disappeared.

The British Antique Dealers’ Association (BADA) has committed to greater transparency and more consultation with its 300-plus members before key decisions affecting the trade body’s future are made.

Chief marketing officer Marc Sands outlines his plans for online growth at the auction house.

An oil on panel of The Tower of Babel, 1604, by Abel Grimmer (1570-1618/19), offered at £1.35m by Johnny Van Haeften was one of the stand-out sales during last week’s host of London art and antique trade events.

Original paintings by Abstract artist Nicolas de Stael (1914-55) rarely appear at auction outside the main salerooms in London, Paris and New York.