UK

It may be strange and surreal, but John Spencer-Churchill’s (1909-92) landscape panorama of the evacuation of Dunkirk is the only depiction of the event known to have been painted by an eyewitness.

The night, just three months before her death, that Marilyn Monroe sang ‘Happy Birthday’ in sultry tones at a Democratic Party fundraiser celebrating John F Kennedy’s 45th birthday caused quite a sensation.

A fascinating archive of manuscripts, ephemera and artefacts relating to the life and career of the great actor, playwright and theatrical manager David Garrick sold for a far higher than predicted £90,000 at Bonhams (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) on November 15.

‘Stage Coach Passengers passing Woburn Sands’ is one of 100 coloured engraved caricatures after Isaac Cruikshank that illustrate GM Woodward’s Eccentric Excursions or Literary and Pictorial Sketches in England and South Wales, interspersed with Curious Anecdotes of 1807.

It has been another bumper year of art and antiques fairs and markets announcements, news and views. Here is a selection of highlights.

While English ceramics feature in most provincial sales, November provided four auctions where the market could be looked at overall.

An extraordinary example of British avant-garde clothing made on the eve of the First World War sold for £29,000 (plus 20% buyer’s premium) at Mallams Oxford on December 8.

Strong competition emerged for an oil sketch for Eugène Delacroix’s 'Liberty Leading the People' at Christie’s in London on December 14.

A copy of the first published work of the Brontë sisters sold for a record sum at Sotheby’s (25/20/12/5% buyer’s premium) on November 7, just a few months after a new high had been set at another London auction.

For some it starts with a fireworks display. For others, a kiss at midnight. But for some London fair-goers, the New Year proper begins in the ballroom of the London Marriott Hotel, Grosvenor Square, with the annual Mayfair Antiques & Fine Art Fair.

Helen Sutcliffe runs the premises of Sutcliffe Galleries in Harrogate. The family-run business has been trading for more than six decades and specialises in paintings from the 18th century to the present day.

A ‘rediscovered’ fifth copy of Martin Waldseemüller’s globe gores from c.1507 was withdrawn from sale last week after a group of academics and dealers in the US expressed doubts over its authenticity.

2017 produced some eye-catching prices in the UK’s regional salerooms. Here are some stand-out lots...

Dealer Vincent Page, the new owner of Antiques on High in Oxford, which was saved from closure earlier this year thanks to a tweet from ATG news reporter Laura Chesters regarding its sale, has been busy since his purchase in August.

IACF came up with some interesting leads this year and featured stories included Joe Mitchell, an event administrator for IACF who is an embroiderer, working for international costume designers.

More than 400 lots of railwayana, assembled from the 1950s onwards by a single collector, will be offered at Norfolk auction house TW Gaze on January 5.