UK

A CHALK drawing of an ‘elephant graveyard’ appeared earlier this month at the entrance to the Portobello Road Market. The three-dimensional pavement art depicting an elephant carcass was the work of representatives for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), who in recent years have singled out the weekly antiques market in its campaign to curb the illegal trade in modern elephant ivory.

Lawrences of Crewkerne are to sell items of stock from former antiques dealers Dodge and Son Limited of Sherborne. The instructions come from the dealership’s administrators, Bishop Fleming.

ENTRIES are now being sought for the 2009 Christopher Weston Bursary essay competition.

Top London antique furniture and works of art dealers Mallett are to leave their landmark Bond Street shop and find new premises in the Mayfair area. One of the few antiques and art dealers quoted on the London Stock Exchange, Mallett told shareholders the proposed move was a result of a massive rent hike and the changing character of the street.

Ten people were injured when a double-decker bus, swerving to avoid a van, crashed into the front of the Lacy Gallery on Westbourne Grove, London.

The death last year aged 98 of Roger Warner brought to a close the long career of one of the last old school eclectic but knowledgeable country dealers.

NORMAN Adams Ltd., leading specialists in classic English period furniture for more than eight decades, are shutting their Knightsbridge showrooms and putting their current stock into a sale at Sotheby’s.

A rare set of three graduated Plymouth baluster-shaped hard paste porcelain mugs, c.1768-70, were offered at Mellors & Kirk of Nottingham last month.

The evocatively named Pickleherring factory is one of the earliest known locations where English delftware was produced.

FOUNDERS and organisers Patricia and Ralph Harvey have sold their long-running Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair to one of their regular exhibitors.

THE future of The Mall antiques centre in Camden Passage looks set to hang in the balance until well into 2009 following the public inquiry into the landlord’s proposals to redevelop the Grade II listed building.

STAYING topical but putting a comic slant on events, an exhibition of original artwork for cartoons relating to financial and political crises will be a feature of The Watercolour & Drawings Fair next February.

Golding Young have acquired fellow Lincolnshire auctioneers Eleys.

AT points, the catalogue of items from the Vaughan family collection sounded like the script for ‘Monty Python and The Holy Grail’.

BONHAMS’ latest silver auction was another sale of two parts. Around a third of it was devoted entirely to one specialist collecting field, early spoons, the bulk from one vendor, Mr Britton Smith.

It took them over a week, but Bonhams have now been able to announce a new record for a piece of 19th century furniture achieved. The new high was achieved when this French ormolu, lacquer and Brazilian rosewood cabinet imitating the shape of a Japanese shodana realised a mighty £1.8m.

A Borders property provided Thomson Roddick (15% buyer's premium) with a sensational discovery for their sale in Rosewell, Edinburgh on December 4.

Fifty-six works from the Vaughan family estate of Hengwrt, Nannau and Rug in Merionethshire, many of which have been in The Welsh Museum, Cardiff following the sale of the house several years ago, were dispersed without reserve by Tamlyn's of Bridgwater, Somerset, on December 9.

Christie’s have announced a number of changes to their South Kensington operation – the first tangible evidence that the London salerooms are reviewing strategy following the downturn witnessed in recent sales.

The 17th century Wittelsbach diamond was bought for £14.6m (plus premium) by dealer Laurence Graff at Christie’s on December 10, beating the previous auction record – the $16.5m paid for a 100 carat rock at Sotheby’s Geneva in 1995.