UK

The Charing Cross Collectors’ Market, at the bottom of Villiers Street, near Charing Cross Station, has to be one of the longest running niche fairs in London.

Comprising what amounted to a crowded Regency household, fully and elegantly furnished and inhabited by half a dozen bisque or parian dolls, a c.1820 mahogany dolls’ cabinet was the outstanding offering from C&T Auctioneers (18% buyer’s premium) in Tunbridge Wells.

Led by the 17th century Goan hardwood, ivory and bone tabernacle which took a 100-times-estimate £36,000 from a European bidder (see Pick of the Week, ATG No 2294), a recent sale at Chiswick Auctions (22% buyer's premium) also included a tribute to a quintessential Victorian imperial hero – General Gordon.

The library of William O’Brien, an Irish-born QC and High Court judge in the Victorian era, sold for a premium-inclusive £2.8m at Sotheby’s (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) on June 7.

In its ongoing exhibition, the Bohun Gallery includes emerging artists alongside leaders in the British art market such as Elisabeth Frink, John Piper and Mary Fedden.

In our continuing series looking through the keyhole of ‘bricks and mortar’ shops in 2017, ATG talks to Paula Rippingale Mills, who runs Rippingales Antiques and Collectables in Suffolk.

The new president of The National Association of Valuers and Auctioneers (NAVA) has called for all auctioneers to be qualified and regulated.

Among the pieces of Fabergé bringing competition at last week’s Russian art sales in London was this c.1909-13 silver vodka cup offered at Sotheby’s.