UK

The auction calendar has been much changed by Covid-19 restrictions. However, as indicated by these lots offered for sale in April, some UK auction houses continue to transact behind closed doors holding ‘live online’ sales with bids taken via bidding platforms such as thesaleroom.com or over the phone.

The three magazines shown here were all produced by students of the Royal College of Art in the years 1925-27 and sold online for £1000 in a sale at Mellors & Kirk (24% buyer’s premium) of Nottingham.

The photograph seen at bottom right is a group of Chinese men convicted of spying and awaiting “…execution by Imperialists”.

The last few weeks of lockdown may have left you wishing you could do more to fight coronavirus. Or they may have left you feeling like that blank stretch of wall in the living room could really do with brightening up.

Dealer Timothy Millett, a specialist in historical medals and associated works of art, has launched a website to sell greeting cards based on images of some of his favourite objects.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from April 28-May 7, 2020. All sales are now held online due to the coronavirus alert.

Brought into Wolverhampton firm Cuttlestones (17.5% buyer’s premium) on a valuation day, this early-19th century anti-slavery tobacco box sold to a UK bidder on thesaleroom.com for £480.

Essay warns about considerable perils of the ‘indecent custom’ of burials in churchyards

Held over three pre-lockdown days on March 5-7, Evesham saleroom Kingham & Orme’s (23% buyer’s premium) auction was rich in the best of English and European decorative arts.

Appearing in 1937, a couple of years after the locomotive itself was launched, the LMS Princess Elizabeth was the biggest and best locomotive that Hornby ever made.

'Calyx (Blue)', a 1951 textile by Lucienne Day (1917-2010), sprouts with Modernist forms. Its colourful, flower-like shapes hint at the mobiles of Alexander Calder or the biomorphs of Joan Miro.

A project led by the British Museum (BM) to combat the trade in looted antiquities from Egypt and Sudan has launched an online database where objects with ‘provenance issues’ can be brought to the attention of museum specialists and academics.

Sworders is launching a new calendar of online-only and timed online auctions to satisfy demand from clients for sales next month.

Trudpert Schneider (1804-99), a Freiburg carpenter whose first brush with photography was to repair a broken box camera, is today deemed one of Germany’s most important daguerreotypists. The photographic firm he founded in 1847 continued under the management of his sons Heinrich and Wilhelm until 1921.