UK

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.

This copy of Christopher Saxton’s 1578 map of Penbrok, or Pembrokeshire as it came later to be known, was offered in a Welsh Sale held by Rogers Jones (22% buyer’s premium) of Cardiff.

Samuel Palmer (1805-81) prints are not unusual on the market but one of two that were offered as a single lot at Chorley’s (22.5% buyer’s premium) in Cheltenham carried an interesting inscription by the artist’s son, AH Palmer.

In May 1875 the British Arctic Expedition under the command of George Nares (1831-1915) set off on a mission to reach the North Pole via the unchartered ‘open polar sea’.

You can’t visit dealers in person – but you could pop in to their homes and gardens online

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from April 22-May 1, 2020. All sales are now held online due to the coronavirus alert.

Richard Edmonds (20% buyer’s premium) in Chippenham, Wiltshire, has sold some very rare British petrol pump globes in the past year – including a globe for the little-known brand Dominion (£13,000 in November).

As part of a spring sale featuring works on paper under £2000, British art dealer Karen Taylor is offering this watercolour by Lady Jane Harriet Pleydell-Bouverie (1819-1903).

Contents of Palladian home in County Durham provide showpiece auction in Newbury

The bohemian lives of the Bloomsbury Group of artists have long been a source of fascination for the British public.

Compiled by Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey of Thirkleby Park in North Yorkshire, an illustrated manuscript on archery dating from the opening years of the last century has sold for £2600. It was part of a sale held in Leyburn by Tennants (20% buyer’s premium).

Among the most successful printing projects marking the Napoleonic Wars were the series of aquatints by Thomas Sutherland (1785-1838) after watercolours by the young William Heath (c.1795-1840) titled The Martial Achievements of Great Britain and Her Allies from 1799 to 1815.

Bid to £4100 and £3000 in a sale held by Lawrences (20% buyer’s premium) of Bletchingley were two albums, or ledgers, relating to the business of violin maker WE Hill & Sons – both with a direct family provenance.

Sir William Whitfield and Andrew Lockwood shared a love of English blue and white transfer printed pottery and associated pearlwares and creamwares.

Novelty inkwells such as this one modelled as a miniature six-bolt diving helmet and corselet were made by the Siebe Gorman works in Chessington, south-west London, as promotional giveaways or gifts to staff on employment milestones or retirement.