UK

The organiser of The Open Art Fair (TOAF) in Chelsea vows the event will return next year.

A painting of the Battle of Trafalgar containing “one of the most important portraits of Nelson on the market in years” will be on offer in Chelsea.

Found in a wardrobe during the clearance of a deceased estate in Spalding, ‘a group of four early 19th century French heraldic plaques’ sold way over hopes at Stamford Auction Rooms in Lincolnshire on February 26.

A carved oak falcon depicting Anne Boleyn’s royal badge bought by a dealer for £75 is to go on display at Hampton Court Palace.

The digital registration service for exempted items containing ivory is now live and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is urging those wishing to sell items that qualify for one of these narrow exemptions to familiarise themselves with the new system.

A collection of works from the family of the sculptor Sir William Reid Dick (1879-1961) comes for sale at a new London firm this month.

Former champion jockey Joe Mercer 1934-2021) was a keen buyer of racing memorabilia.

The two signed photo-portraits of writers reproduced here formed part of a November 17-December 1 sale held by Christie’s (15/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) that dispersed a single-owner collection of literary manuscripts billed as Exiles and Idealists.

With the discovery of the intact tomb of Tutankhamun in 1923, an Egyptian revival swept through the decorative arts. Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels were among the first to design jewels that mixed Egyptian motifs with the geometry and bold colours of the Art Deco era. But other French, British and US ateliers soon followed.

Emerging artists and those out of the limelight become popular as buyers look for new names

Some people like to call their antiques businesses by names that are personal to them and which have a strong family connection, such as Noble Salvages in Swadlincote and Peggy McCools in Warrington.

Although Roamer fell victim to the ‘quartz crisis’ – the introduction of quartz watches in the 1970s and early 1980s that largely replaced mechanical watches – in the 1950s-60s the firm enjoyed a good reputation as the maker of good-quality, affordable automatic mechanical watches.

The Omega Seamaster 300, launched in 1957 simultaneously with the Railmaster and the Speedmaster, appears in numerous variations.

This early medieval gold cross was discovered by a metal detectorist in a field in Sutton St Edmund, Lincolnshire, in April 2019. After two years, going through the Treasure process, the cross was returned to the finder, who is selling it at Dix Noonan Webb on March 15.

The Select Jewellery & Watches sale at Lyon & Turnbull (25/20% buyer’s premium) on March 30 includes a number of pieces by the coterie of artist-craftsmen who led a revival of British jewellery making in the 1960s-70s. Like so much of post-war decorative arts, they have roared back into fashion.

Among the highlights at this month’s Connect Art Fair is an untitled c.1968/71 gouache on paper by British-Guyanese artist Aubrey Williams, offered for £4500 by Middlemarch Art.

Described by one visitor as “a cocktail of the senses when you step inside,” the Brothership Studio in Hertford offers the work of seven artists plus guests across two studios and galleries in the town.

The jewellery department at Woolley & Wallis has built up something of a reputation for selling cameos and intaglios.

Ecclesiastical commissions are integral to the Mouseman story – it was the friendship between Father Paul Neville and Robert Thompson that led to the work at Ampleforth College – but in commercial terms these can be relatively difficult pieces.