Front Page and News

A US-based vendor cashed in when a portrait by Sir William Orpen (1878-1931) of his lover Evelyn St George sold at Sotheby’s for more than double the amount it had fetched less than four months earlier at a New Jersey auction.

A Dickin Medal – the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross – is expected to reach £30,000-40,000 at coin and medal auction specialist Morton & Eden in London on December 4.

Les Enluminures has sold a thousand-year-old Giant Bible of St Maximin to the National Library of Luxembourg for €4.5m (£3.735m)

This remarkable Charles II period silver clock-watch with alarm appeared for sale at Wotton Auction Rooms in Gloucestershire this month.

Organiser IACF is taking over the antiques and collectors’ fairs held for 25 years by the family owned Aztec Events at the Norfolk Showground, a rural location 10 miles west of Norwich.

The second instalment of Meissen porcelain from the collection of German businessman Hadrian Maria Oskar Merkle (1942-2018) was sold at a recent sale at Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr of Paris.

A rare enamel advertising sign in almost perfect condition was the biggest eye-catcher at the recent dedicated sale held by specialist Pari (20% buyer’s premium) in the Bavarian city of Aschaffenburg.

This late Tudor or early Stuart purse or sweet bag with a connection to Mary, Queen of Scots sold for £30,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) at a recent sale at Hutchinson Scott.

Advertising showcards were displayed in grocers and chemist shops, often as counter displays or hanging signs.

Dreweatts’ sale of items from the Leeds and London dealership Tomasso included a recently reunited pair of porphyry vases.

A painting by Indian Modernist Kovalezhi CS Paniker (1911-77) soared to over 40 times estimate at Roseberys.

Leading Bonhams’ Fine Glass and British Ceramics sale in London on November 26-27 is a recently discovered Limehouse porcelain cat.

What is thought to be a lost portrait of Maria de’ Medici (1575-1642) as a young woman has been discovered by dealer Nick Cox of Period Portraits.