UK

Described in Time Out earlier this year as a place where “high art and innovation meet”, Hackney in east London, with Shoreditch and Hoxton round the corner, has dozens of independent shops, cafes and markets.

MADAM – Six hundred and ninety-one people is actually a fairly decent response from a trade in which there are only a handful of interested parties (Letters, ATG No 2353).

From 1936-45, St Ives artist John Wells (1907-2000) embarked on a series of labour-intensive creations while working as a GP on the Isles of Scilly.

Illustrated with coloured engravings, The History of Sixteen Wonderful Old Women is a work of 1821 that is “thought to be the first printed book of Limericks”.

Organisers launch new fair in Suffolk after long-standing event had to be abandoned.

Two of only 11 leaves of the original, working manuscript of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species… known to remain in private hands were sold at auction in London last month.

Sold for £2500 in a Dominic Winter (20% buyer’s premium) sale of July 25 was an enormous archive of work produced in the 1950s and ‘60s by Leslie Starke (1905-74), a cartoonist once very popular in both the UK and US.

Private bidders were overtaken as dealers found warmth in the best traditional furniture and chattels offered at auction.

Tennants (20% buyer’s premium) of Leyburn claimed a new auction record for Bertram Priestman (1868-1951) when it sold a painting of an extensive river landscape by the local artist.

Cirencester saleroom Moore Allen & Innocent (20% buyer’s premium) enjoyed a taste of India’s fast-growing art market when three pictures by the Indian folk artist Jamini Roy (1887-1972) were scooped up for a total of £24,500.

Sold at £620 in a July 2 sale held by Hansons (20% buyer’s premium) was a leather-bound promotional catalogue issued by the Walturdaw Cinema Supply Co of Birmingham.

Anniversary of Cook voyage and a book 15 years in the making underpin London event...

Alan Cartwright’s two-day antiques and vintage fair at Wetherby Racecourse in West Yorkshire has been a strong runner in his Jaguar Fairs’ portfolio since he took it over in 2001. It now attracts up to 300 exhibitors at each of the three annual events.

The idea to stage a 1940s weekend of events at Hemswell Antique Centres near Gainsborough in Lincolnshire in late July to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the RAF came from some of the dealers based there.

The first stand-alone British and European sculpture sale to be held by Dreweatts (24% buyer’s premium) was a solid-enough affair to justify department head Cristian Beadman’s belief that there is an exploitable gap in the market.

Two depictions of the Madonna painted some 400 years apart were among the highlights of a dedicated sale of pictures at Dreweatts (24% buyer’s premium) in Donnington Priory in Berkshire.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

It’s a rare sale these days at which an English furniture standard challenges quality Chinese pieces for price, but the top end of the trade certainly rated a 6ft 3in (1.9m) William and Mary walnut and featherbanded bureau cabinet offered by Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood (21% buyer’s premium).

Preparatory and other unused drawings relating to Roald Dahl classics come to auction

Simplicity and geometry are key to the works of Eugène Printz, one of the Parisian practitioners of Art Deco design.