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Christie’s has two dedicated drawings sales, one devoted to Old Master and 19th century works on March 21, the other to modern works on paper on March 22.

Two opposing views on the big questions facing the trade… This week we ask two auctioneers about the best strategy regarding the positioning of the best lots in a sale.

The Asian art sale at Chiswick confirmed that many of the better pieces of Chinese art are now well beyond the budget of the average western collector.

Widely exported during the Meiji period to a Western market newly awake to the skills of Japanese craftsmen, okimono now often appear at provincial salerooms.

A likely candidate as highlight of the year for Exeter auction house Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood (21% buyer’s premium) will be the £305,000 Hans Coper vase (ATG last week, No 2332).

Two stand-out collections containing Old Master and traditional British works on paper were offered within 24 hours of each other in Oxfordshire.

Paris was an important destination for artists in the 19th and 20th centuries and the city gathered in creatives from all across Europe.

London saleroom Chiswick Auctions has secured four significant pieces of European and British sculpture not seen on the market for at least a generation.

A number of books on plastic surgery featured in a recent Californian sale including an 1833, first English edition of Johann F Dieffenbach’s Surgical Observations on the Restoration of the Nose.

On a lesser scale than the exceptional £35,000 George II chairs at Holloway’s sale, but standing out from the general run of brown furniture, were other encouraging results across the country in February.

The roster of exhibitor names at the Salon du Dessin underscores the international standing of this specialist event. Although it is organised by a committee of Paris dealers, more than half the participants come from overseas.

A small soapstone figure of a grinning, reclining Buddha stole the show at Thomas Watson (24% buyer’s premium) of Darlington when it smashed its estimate of £80-120 to sell for £16,500.

Flash from the past at the Diss rooms of TW Gaze (18% buyer’s premium).

Dwarfed as they were by the £440,000 oil of St John the Evangelist (see ATG last week, No 2332), a number of other lots helped to make Holloway’s (20% buyer’s premium) first major sale of the year in Banbury on February 27 an event to remember.

This 23in x 2ft 7in (59 x 80cm) oil on canvas is attributed to Blanche Hoschedé-Monet (1865-1947), the step-daughter and daughter-in-law of Claude Monet.

Estimated at £8000-12,000, this five-piece sterling silver tea and coffee service by Harald Nielsen (1891-1977) for Georg Jensen will go under the hammer at Great Western Auctions’ Fine Art & Antique sale on March 23-24.

New York gallery show coincides with and adds to the Asian art week of events...

Sotheby’s has something special to offer for the Paris drawings fest – a single-owner collection formed by a dedicated couple that, say the auctioneers, is the fruit of a life dedicated to a passion for painting and drawings.

Commander John Morton Lee OBE RN (retd.), who had a long career in the Royal Navy before turning his passion for watercolours into a dealer business, died peacefully on February 26 after a brief illness, aged 88.

There tends to be two key narratives about the antiques business of interest to the mainstream media.