UK

Photo-london, the four-year-old specialist photograph fair that takes place annually in May, has a new owner, a new venue and a new slant.

SPECIAL FOCUS: ST ALBANS ANTIQUES CENTREST ALBANS’ last remaining shop selling antiques may be forced out of business if a planning application for its change of use to a restaurant is approved.

SIR Harry Newton (1871-1951), whose library provided some of the finest things in a £730,000 book sale held by Duke’s of Dorchester on March 8, was an adherent of the old ‘Cabinet’ school of collecting – buying key works of literature and science.

On March 6, amid a scrum of journalists and anoraks, Bonhams sold the Angels collection of stage and screen costume including Obi Wan Kenobi’s hooded cloak from the original Star Wars film, knocked down below expectations at £45,000.

FOR the third successive year, dealers from the UK’s two major antiquarian bookselling organisations, ABA and PBFA have combined forces at the Edinburgh Book Fair which this year takes place on March 23 and 24 in Edinburgh’s Assembly Rooms.

The majolica market may have cooled a little since the white hot days of the 1990s but rarities still have the capacity to command imposing sums at auction.

Renowned Tudor historian and TV personality Dr David Starkey has discovered what is almost certainly the first and only known surviving portrait of Lady Jane Grey to be painted in her lifetime.

THE London trade can breathe a sigh of relief. The British Art Market Federation (BAMF) have won their battle to stop a new Government Bill introducing draconian measures to regulate the capital’s dealers and auction houses.

Lure of top-end art proves too tempting

BRIGHTON-based Geoff Rush runs Vinylman, the pomotions company which organises the Brighton Record Fair.

Trade reaction to the extension of London’s congestion charge zone ranges from serious concern to mild resignation.

THE imminent smoking ban and the government’s attempts to tackle binge drinking wouldn’t have gone down too well with the Reffley Brethren.

Exhibitors find a fortnight in London too costly to bear

This Chinese turquoise ground ewer, standing just 73/4in (19.7cm) high, belongs to a group of ritual wares specially commissioned by the Qing Court for placement on Buddhist altars. Their function was for ceremonial use in palaces and temples either within the Forbidden Palace or Bishushanzhuang in Chengde.

SILKS from China, carpets from Persia, cottons, shawls and kilims from India, Euopean embroidery and lace, antique buttons and bows – some of these fine textiles, fabrics and accessories are now an essential part of any vintage fashion fair.

The hotels of Newbury were full of lovers on Valentine’s Day – lovers of Chinese jade. A packed room and a full bank of telephones were buzzing as Dreweatt Neate sold Chinese jade from the collection of the late June, Lady Horlick, including many pieces acquired from the London trade in the 1960s and 1970s and not seen on the market since then.

Council commission points to more sympathetic position

THE changing tastes of collectors and the great 21st century art boom have been widely reported in recent times. And a timely case in point arrives with the news that the Belgian collector and food magnate Baron Guy Ullens has chosen to sell his collection of 14 Turner watercolours to focus his collecting energies and resources on Chinese Contemporary art.

THERE’S post-festive joy in Camden Passage, as Mike Weedon, spokesman for the Camden Passage Association, reports that many of the dealers who’ve been trading there for 30 years had their best Christmas on record.

Auction series takes art sales to new level