UK

A brand-new building on the Dodwell Trading Estate outside Stratford-upon- Avon is the home of the recently opened Top Dog Antiques.

This example of the well-known Nelson memorial vinaigrette made by Matthew Linwood of Birmingham in 1805 sold for £2800 at Lawrences (25% buyer’s premium) of Crewkerne.

This summer was something of a feast when it came to the Modern British art auctions in London.

To get an idea of the healthy nature of the medals market at the moment, consider the Victoria Cross sold at Spink (20% buyer’s premium) this summer.

Bearing as its title ‘Certain Directions for the Sending of Men and Comodities, & Cattle to Virginia’, a 10pp secretarial manuscript thought to date from c.1609 proved a major attraction in a July 14 sale held by Forum (15/20/12.5% buyer’s premium).

Between reserving various pieces to museums, Guy Peppiatt was pleased to sell a large watercolour of Yorkshire by Peter de Wint (1748- 1849) during the latest London Art Week (LAW).

Only two examples of this 11in (28cm) Sèvres biscuit porcelain bust of Napoleon’s son, Napoléon-François-Charles-Joseph Bonaparte (1811-32), are known.

Unique medal combinations will always catch a collector’s eye, particularly when accompanied by a highly emotive backstory.

Rediscovered sculpted portrait heads a special report covering recent lots linked to the man who became emperor, dedicated to both his triumphs and defeats

This cased pair of English flintlock duelling pistols by Joseph Gulley, London, c.1810-15, sold for £8600 at Halls (20/12% buyer’s premium) in a timed online sale that ended on August 2.

A small group of highly personal works by Henry Lamb (1883-1960) provided an intriguing insight into his life and work at the Modern British art sales at Bonhams this summer.

It is close on 50 years since a 1705 first of John Law’s 'Money and Trade Considered…' was seen at auction, said Lyon & Turnbull (20% buyer’s premium) of the copy in re-backed contemporary calf that it sold for £22,000 in a summer sale held in Edinburgh.

The two cut-out and trimmed coloured initials illustrated here are part of a group of six, taken from two manuscripts of 12th century French origin, that made up a lot sold for £10,000 in a July 6 sale held by Bloomsbury Auctions (25/20/12% buyer’s premium).

James Brett of The Gallery of Everything cultivates an attitude that selling for its own sake is less important than putting on a rattling good show.

The murder of William Weare in the Hertfordshire village of Radlett in 1823 has been called the first trial by newspaper.

Two more London fairs are on the cards for next year.