UK

After two cancelled fairs due to the pandemic, the biannual Scone Palace Antiques & Fine Art Fair in Scotland is back with a new edition scheduled for November.

Blackdog Events is holding a two-day winter decorative antiques and vintage fair in one of the organiser’s regular and popular country house fair locations, the Grade I-Listed Glemham Hall, near Woodbridge in Suffolk.

Matthew Adams has been in touch about a change of date for his Frock Me! vintage fair and its associated jewellery event which was long announced for Sunday, November 14, at Kensington Town Hall in west London.

As an inventor and an entrepreneur, Dr John C Taylor feels a special affinity with the pioneering clockmakers of the English Golden Age. And it is this connection that has guided his collecting across several decades.

The Northern Antiques Fair looks set to move permanently from Harrogate following a successful first outing at the new venue of the Tennants auction house complex in Leyburn.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

Letter from cryptology expert describes his analysis of a Monte Carlo betting system

Antarctic maps take highest prices in collection relating to key Terra Nova crew member

Eye-catching and ear-pleasing, this early example of a monkey chamber orchestra musical automaton picture was one of the star performers at Tennants’ (20% buyer premium) Scientific and Musical Instruments sale.

A group of early 19th century microscope slides mounted with specimens of fossilised wood sold for £11,500 (estimate £1000-1500) to a Canadian private collector at Special Auction Services (25% buyer’s premium) in Newbury.

Two micro-mosaic pictures took a six-figure sum at a Cirencester saleroom – 10-times their low estimate.

Emile Berliner (1851-1921), a German clerk in a Washington DC haberdashery, is credited with inventing both the first commercially successful disc record and the first machine to play it.

The top two UK auction houses have announced a string of high-profile consignments coming to auction in the autumn/winter season.

A wealthy US donor and a London antiquities dealership helped ensure a hoard of Roman bronzes recently discovered by metal detectorists will soon be on public display.

Christopher Dresser (1834-1904) designed two electroplated claret or water jugs for Elkington & Co of Birmingham in 1885 – both of them daring designs inspired by vessels from antiquity.

It has been a busy season for ornithological favourite Archibald Thorburn (1860-1935) with a number of quality pictures previously sold by leading dealers reappearing at auction and attracting keen interest.

Given that most antique furniture at auction tends to be good value only for the buyer these days, one can perhaps understand why it occasionally does not always receive the attention it once merited from auctioneers and valuers. As a result, occasionally a special item slips through.