UK

Regional auction houses accounted for over a quarter of the UK auction market in 2017.

German-made painted wood Noah’s arks, appealing to folk art and toy collectors alike, don’t get much better than the mid- 19th century example sold at Bonhams Knightsbridge.

Furnishings that were once part of the family home of Gertrude Bell, one of the most fascinating figures of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, are coming up at auction at Tennants in North Yorkshire on March 17.

Pretty, petite and French – a seductive combination which won admirers of this kingwood and floral marquetry escritoire at Mallams’ (20% buyer’s premium) Oxford rooms.

When it comes to the business of selling middle-market collections, the big London salerooms are particularly adept at cherry-picking the best and rejecting the rest.

Over a period of four decades, from the 1930s-‘60s, the Italian artist Marino Marini (1901-80) returned again and again to the subject of horse and rider.

BAMF chairman and new chief executive address LAPADA conference

The contribution of Britain’s ‘regional’ salerooms – defined here as those outside the big London four of Sotheby’s, Christie’s, Bonhams and Phillips – is frequently overlooked when figures demonstrating the size of the UK auction market for art and antiques are created.

MADAM – Gavin Littaur’s comment (Letters, ATG No 2329) that “BAMF’s definition of ‘museum quality’ is exceedingly unhelpful” pulls its punches too much.

Sold at £6000 in a recent Scottish sale was an early golfing item. The 1839 edition of Rules of the Game of Golf adopted by the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers shown below was still in the original wrappers and bore an 1852 ownership inscription of one Henry Wells.

Olivier Malingue launched his eponymous New Bond Street gallery in 2016 and has devoted its business to bringing older pieces into contemporary frameworks.

Skilfully designed to catch salmon, fishing flies and lures hooked enthusiasts at Shropshire sporting specialist Mullock’s (20% buyer’s premium) fishing sale which included the work of two great names in the angling lexicon.

Made in Switzerland for the Turkish market, in the late 19th century this zarf (coffee cup), below, had endured some rough treatment over the years before appearing at the Shropshire rooms of Trevanion & Dean (19% buyer’s premium).

MADAM – The proper aim of all right-minded persons is to end ivory poaching. The irrelevant ‘ivory bill’ will not help.

A hitherto unrecorded teapot attributed to a pioneering North American porcelain factory sold last week for a remarkable £460,000 (plus premium) at Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury.

Galloway Antiques Fair’s next event takes place at Scone Palace, the Georgian Gothic historic house near Perth in Scotland.