UK

Bids of £100 and upwards bought bidders a history of the English hearth and home among the Crowther lots at Cheffins on June 13-14, where 80% of the lower-priced items went to private buyers.

Like many artists, hands held a strong fascination for British sculptor Henry Moore (1898-1986), and he came back to the subject numerous times in his career.

For Paul Nunn, founder of antique clocks and barometers dealership Olde Time, the virtues of fairs and the internet have always been secondary to that of the physical shop.

From lighthouses and ships in distress to labourers and landscapes, the two exhibitions at The Fine Art Society in Edinburgh this month celebrate three centuries of Scotland’s art.

Designer Vicki Ambery-Smith is regularly selected to show at the prestigious annual Goldsmiths Fair at Goldsmiths Hall in London.

A pocket watch worn by Lord Nelson during the Battle of Trafalgar and probably given to him after his triumph at the Battle of the Nile is to be offered at auction next month.

Pitched at £100-150, a small North American Native woven pouch attracted interest from London, Continental and US specialists at Tennants’ (23% buyer’s premium) Militaria & Ethnographica offering at Leyburn.

It was catalogued as 19th century, with a replaced plate, later back batons, small chips and wear, age cracks and the gilt painted surface was thick and not original.

Some 240 lots in a recent two-day book sale in Norfolk came from the library of local authors and collectors David and Patricia Cory, with science fiction, fantasy, ghost stories and crime fiction very much in evidence.

Comprising some 3000 books that range in date from 1473-1840, one of the finer collection of books on agriculture ever assembled will be dispersed by Forum Auctions in a July 10-11 sale that runs to more than 800 lots.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from July 3-12, 2018.

It’s always heartening to hear of redundant churches being put to another use. A Grade II-listed Victorian church in Wolverhampton which has been empty for more than a decade is set to open as an antiques centre later this month.

It was the last flickerings of the dynasty which took salvage from the demolition site and put it back into the drawing room.

MADAM – I am writing to counter the simplistic view espoused by Niall Milligan concerning the banning of ivory (Letters, ATG No 2348).

Trade bodies seeking to legally challenge the government’s plan for a near-total UK ban on the sale of ivory have been told they must wait until the bill receives Royal Assent.

MADAM – News that the British Museum is to accept the donation of more than 500 Chinese ivory figures from the Sir Victor Sassoon collection, mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries, is to be welcomed… to a degree!

This hitherto unknown iron – part of select group of perhaps a dozen very early golf clubs from the late 17th or early 18th century – emerged at Gorringe’s in Lewes on June 26.

Art Deco bronze and ivory figures continue to do well – despite the imminent legislation that could render some of them illegal to sell.

“The best piece in the sale,” enthused auctioneer Richard Harrison in reference to a Meiji Kazaridana cabinet sold for £11,000 at Mitchells (20% buyer’s premium) at Cockermouth on June 13-15.

A good helping of late Victorian pictures featured among the top prices on June 6 at Lawrences (20% buyer’s premium) of Bletchingley in Surrey.