UK

The apparent decline in passing trade is a subject occupying the minds of many shop-owning dealers. But some, such as Brentford’s Hill House, have taken matters into their own hands by staging promotional events to encourage attendance.

Lawrences of Crewkerne is co-sponsoring a major new exhibition of works by the Camden Town Group which runs at the Museum of Somerset in Taunton until July 8.

Helen Bowman and Ben Wray of Bowman Fairs launched their first fleamarket earlier this month in the unusual setting of the Skipton Auction Mart in North Yorkshire. In its daily life, the venue is a cattle market.

MADAM – Having read your story about the reappearance on the market of boatswain whistles that had been pulled from sale in 2008 by the Antique Plate Committee (ATG No 2282), I would like to draw the attention of your readers to the work of this committee and the Hallmarking Act 1973.

This Tiffany gold necklace and earclip suite composed of textured rose petal links by Angela Cummings (c.1944) sold for £10,200 at Bonhams Knightsbridge (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) on March 15.

A textbook Renaissance style jewel by Carlo Giuliano (1831-95) led a strong jewellery offering at Thomas Watson (24% buyer’s premium) in Darlington on March 21.

“Seeing the vans arrive and all the wonderful things being unloaded and then built into something beautiful on their stands is a real buzz: we can’t wait.” These are the words of Richard Burgoin, director of Arthur Swallow Fairs, when talking about his ‘summer of salvage’.

The collective noun ‘petroliania’ may be unfamiliar to some readers, but it’s a useful and profitable one as evidenced at the biannual sales held by Chippenham Auctions’ sister-auction house Richard Edmonds (20% buyer’s premium).

Waterhouse & Dodd’s upcoming exhibition focuses on the influence of David Bomberg’s (1890-1957) paintings on a wide circle of artists.

As Fox & Moon Fairs, Tony Crellin has been running regular vintage events at the National Coalmining Museum in Yorkshire, near Wakefield, for the past four years.

Three high-quality sales from the north to the south gave a cheerful air to spring. The catalogue at Tennants in North Yorkshire pretty much covered the range but in Sussex and Buckinghamshire the emphasis was on furniture.

Generally regarded as a guide of things to come, the Spring Fine Sale at Tennants (20% buyer’s premium) at Leyburn on March 24-25 left auctioneer Jeremy Pattison in an upbeat mood.

Since its launch eight years ago, Derwen Fairs’ antiques and vintage market at the National Botanic Gardens of Wales has gone from a one to two-day run, trebled in size to 100 stands and has four dates this year.

A late 19th century/early 20th century ruby cameo and baroque pearl pendant once formed part of the celebrated jewellery collection assembled by Ganna Walska (1887-1984). It sold for a multi-estimate £55,000 at Sotheby’s (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) sale of fine jewels in Bond Street on March 22.

A framed limited edition print is Cattle Market by Jo Willis priced at £170, measuring 12 x 12in (30 x 30cm). It will be for sale at the Reading Contemporary Art Fair this weekend.

In the chapter titled ‘Modern Jewellery’ in her taste-making book, The Art of Beauty (1878), English writer Mary Eliza Haweis references the “artistic appreciation of good forms and good work” she found at Messrs Phillips of Cockspur Street.

This weekend Oxford hosts the PBFA’s 100-dealer antiquarian and out-of-print book premier fair, one of the largest in the association’s calendar. It is held at the Oxford Brookes Wheatley Campus on Saturday and Sunday, April 22-23.

From noble jewels to semi-precious gems, a show in May will celebrate a ‘golden period’ of Portuguese jewellery in the 18th century. Here we preview the exhibition and then present other recent and forthcoming sale highlights.

Dominated as they were by furniture, the March sales at Lewes and Donnington Priory included other highlights.

Nick Arkell is one of the owners of Walton House Antiques, a shop in Mere, Wiltshire, which specialises in furniture, fine art and antiques. He is exhibiting at the ADFL Petworth fair.