UK

The Petworth Park Antiques & Fine Art Fair can go ahead as planned in September after the National Trust deemed it an ‘outdoor’ event.

A pair of imperially inscribed Qianlong (1735-96) mark and period famille rose wall vases set a house record for Asian art at Roseberys.

The ‘high season’ of summer auctions in London held by Sotheby’s and Christie’s generated £205.8m including premium last week.

The recent Mallams (22.5% buyer’s premium) live online sale of Chinese, Japanese and Islamic art in Cheltenham included Chinese works on paper and textiles from a relative of Katherine Talati (1922-2015).

Two works by Fred Stead (1863-1940) drew strong interest at Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium) in West Sussex thanks, in part, to here-to-be-sold estimates. They were being consigned from a deceased estate.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from August 4-20, 2020.

The planned reopening at Easter of the former antiques warehouse in the Suffolk village of Long Melford was one of the last features to appear in this column prior to lockdown.

Two 19th century ‘prestige’ knives from southern Africa attracted unexpected levels of bidding at Grand Auctions (20% buyer’s premium) in Folkestone. Estimated at just £40-80 each, they made a combined £9200.

The artist John Hurford was a key figure in the British psychedelia movement of the late 1960s.

Four pictures in Colchester sale provide a good case study in the factors affecting John Constable attributions and buyer confidence

This Nast two-handled cup and stand with classical decoration, c.1800, is among the objects set to be featured at the Cecil Court Summer Showcase.

Towy Events organiser and dealer Robert Pugh has cancelled his August antiques and fleamarkets monthly event at the Carmarthen Showground and will await government guidance about when he can restart.

Normally a quiet month, this August dealerships across the UK are reacting to a world changed by coronavirus.

As well as dealers’ websites and multi-dealer portals, a number of online events are taking place this summer that feature a range of traders. Here is a selection of some of the places to find art and antiques online in the coming months.

It was during the so-called Transitional period, the era of protracted civil war that marked the transition from Ming to Qing, that the centuries-old system of court-sponsored porcelain manufacture at Jingdezhen collapsed.

The response among Sixties regulars at a north London pub to the fly poster, below, advertising a gig by the High Numbers may well have been: The who?

John Vernon ‘Jack’ Webb (1923-2019) was destined to be a collector of medals and militaria. On June 5, 1944, he was on a troop ship preparing to take part in the D-Day landings.

August is typically a fallow month for art and antiques – a time when holidays are taken in the wake of a busy June and July. However, given the exceptional circumstances, 2020 will be a little different.