UK

The United Kingdom accounts for more than one fifth of the global art market sales and is the second biggest art market after the US.

Through auctioneers, dealers, fairs and markets - and a burgeoning online sector - buyers, collectors and sellers of art and antiques can easily access a vibrant network of intermediaries and events around the country. The UK's museums also house a wealth of impressive collections

A passage to Serindia

16 April 2018

An estimate of £120-150 was never going to do for a lot in a Leominster sale of March 28 that was catalogued, in full, as “STEIN, Sir Aurel, Serindia, a Detailed Report of Explorations in Central Asia and Westernmost, four vols, and a box with maps (5)”.

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Sailing off to Iceland

16 April 2018

Something of a rarity, To Iceland in a Yacht appears to have no other auction appearances to its name. It was privately printed in Edinburgh in 1873 for its author, the chemist Robert Angus Smith (1817-84), a man best known for his work on air pollution and his identification of what later came to be known as acid rain.

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Racecourse day off to good start

16 April 2018

Organiser of new Surrey event pleased at positive reaction and trader response.

Brussells

Proposed EU cultural goods bill ‘unworkable’ say trade bodies

16 April 2018

Book dealers seek change to 250-years-old clause in proposed import licensing law.

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Go for a sunny day out at the Mills

16 April 2018

A reminder of a fair we previewed in January: Caroline Brown’s second vintage furniture and homewares fair takes place on Saturday and Sunday, April 28-29.

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Roger Fenton’s pioneering war photography

16 April 2018

According to Chris Albury at Cirencester auctioneer Dominic Winter, an “an absolutely A1 example” of Roger Fenton’s (1819-69) famous photo The Valley of the Shadow of Death would make “£50,000-plus at auction, easy peasy”.

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‘I should be dead now – it was a decent shot’

16 April 2018

A veteran of the Afghanistan war, a sniper who fought on for 90 minutes after being shot in the neck, is selling his medals in a London auction as he returns to civilian life.

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More faces lined up for Olympia

16 April 2018

A charity which has sponsored an armourer, a gunmaker and many other metalworkers is the very appropriate cause being supported by The Antique Arms Fair at Olympia.

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Chocks away for RAF centenary events at Spink

16 April 2018

To mark the centenary of the founding of the Royal Air Force, London auction house Spink is holding a special public exhibition featuring medals and relics on loan from prominent collectors.

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Innovations at The London Original Print Fair set to draw in young collectors

16 April 2018

The fair offering a way to own a big name without the huge cost is back for 33rd staging.

Canoe bailer

South Pacific ula and canoe bailer from the family of 19th century murdered missionary hammered down at auction in Dorset

14 April 2018

A South Pacific ula throwing club and a Maori canoe bailer that once belonged to an English reverend killed by cannibals in Vanuatu in the 19th century has sold at an auction at Duke's Auctioneers in Dorchester.

Gramophone

Stolen gramophone discovered in France will be returned to rightful owner

13 April 2018

A stolen gramophone will be returned to its owner next week after an Antiques Trade Gazette article alerted the buyer to the theft.

Glasgow school key

Charles Rennie Mackintosh-designed Glasgow School of Art key to stay in Scotland after it is sold at Edinburgh auction

13 April 2018

In the year of the 150th anniversary of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s birth, Lyon & Turnbull has sold the very key used to open the artist’s masterpiece The Glasgow School of Art in 1899.

Princess Michael of Kent

Princess Michael of Kent returns to Essex for auction preview

12 April 2018

Princess Michael of Kent returned to Sworders 10 years after she had opened the Essex firm's new saleroom for an auction preview this week.

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Huge group of photos at auction reflects 19th century collecting craze of the carte de visite

12 April 2018

Parents will now be shelling out hundreds of pounds as kids fill up football World Cup sticker albums and negotiate playground swaps in a now time-honoured fashion. Back in the mid-19th century the photo collecting craze was all about the carte de visite, as a May 3 auction underlines.

UK exports

UK art exports to China soar despite overall slide in international customs figures

11 April 2018

Art and antiques exports from the UK continued to fall in 2017, recording a decline of 2.2% to £4.84bn, according to UK trade figures from HMRC. At the same time, there were areas of significant growth, including exports to China which rose by 350% to £115.9m in 2017.

Red bed

Red Bed eulogised by Nancy Mitford from Faringdon House up for auction

11 April 2018

Nancy Mitford was so enamoured with a particular bed that she wrote about it lovingly in the 1950s.

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John Ward studio pottery trio to set a market test at Chiswick Auctions

09 April 2018

When a piece of Hans Coper stoneware made an astonishing £305,000 hammer price from an online bid recently it posed a classic ‘state of the market’ question.

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John Piper and others fire a salvo for Russia

09 April 2018

One of just 100 copies of a scarce, privately published edition of poems called Salvo for Russia, produced in 1942 in aid of the ‘Comforts Fund for Women and Children of Russia’, was offered in a recent West Country sale.

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Haddon powers on in Essex

09 April 2018

Steve Cooper of Haddon Events is such a keen supporter of the Museum of Power at Maldon in Essex that he holds a biannual antiques and collectors’ fair at the venue.

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