Nottingham

International Autograph Auctions Ltd has ceased trading and is being placed in voluntary liquidation.

The Omega Seamaster 300 ranks among the most desirable of all diving watches.

Jaguar Fairs is celebrating its 25th year in the business by launching a new one-day midweek outside antiques and vintage fair at Nottingham Racecourse.

Rarely seen in public before, this signed 18in x 2ft (45 x 65cm) gouache is one of the earliest works by the British Modernist painter John Armstrong (1893-1973).

This Victorian mother-of-pearl and abalone shell card case is carved with a portrait of George Lord Byron, the most flamboyant and notorious of the major English Romantic poets.

American naval expertise and gallantry came as a big shock to the British, who had become used to the Royal Navy ruling the waves.

Nottingham auction house Mellors & Kirk (20% buyer’s premium) added to the cautiously feel-good mood created by some highly successful autumn sales in the provinces when strong private buying brought impressive results across the board.

The Tiles and Architectural Ceramics Society hosts its annual antique and collectable tile fair on Saturday October 5 at St Jude’s Hall, Mapperley, Nottingham.

Visit by auctioneer to a regular auction-goer’s apartment uncovers Wedgwood collection.

The Patriotic War of 1812 stirred up powerful feelings of national pride in Russia.

On December 27, 1851, the architect Sir Charles Barry (1795-1860) wrote to Augustus Pugin (1812-52) with a progress report on the interior decoration of the Palace of Westminster.

Pitched at £15,000-25,000, a rare 16th century French work made its lower estimate at Mellors & Kirk (20% buyer’s premium).

Underpinned by bids from the internet, silver from beyond the British Isles is these days a stronger feature of provincial sales.

Captain Albert Ball (1896-1917) is remembered as one of Britain’s greatest heroes of the skies. At the time of his death over Arras in the First World War, aged just 19, he had shot down at least 44 German planes and was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.

Collectables untouched by Byronmania but selling well at the Harold Ward auction at Mellors & Kirk on February 6-7 included a 19th century ‘Grand Tour’ Italian alabaster model of the Piazza del Duomo, Pisa, and a gold-mounted malacca walking cane engraved to the pommel with the 1816-37 royal arms.

With the great country house contents sales of the past now largely a distant memory, single-owner collection sales have become the next-best thing.

That rare beast – a good old-fashioned single-owner sale – is a format that seldom fails to produce decent results.

An oval oil portrait painted by the Chinese artist Spoilum (fl.1785-1805) depicting Captain George Delanoe, a 1st Lieutenant and Commander of HMS Repulse, drew fervent interest at Mellors & Kirk's latest sale in Nottingham.

A regular stallholder at Arthur Swallow Fairs is Liam Woodgates, director of the Hopkinson Vintage Antique and Art Centre in Nottingham, where a corner display is pictured below.