East of England

Andrew Singleton’s first of two annual exhibitions this year opens on June 10, and he is prepared for a rush of interest in early furniture.

Seventy years ago, councils around the UK launched Pictures for Schools, a scheme to bring original works of art into the classroom.

Watercolours by the polar explorer Apsley Cherry-Garrard (1886-1959) were discovered among thousands of works from Stanley Studios in Chelsea.

The fairs scene is largely thriving, as evidenced by the number of new event launches reported in Antiques Trade Gazette. This week brings news of two more, both in the east of England.

Two small private collections of glass, Art Nouveau and contemporary, were clear areas of interest at Cheffins’ (22.5% buyer’s premium) Art & Design from 1860 sale at Cambridge on May 11.

A rare early photographic instrument – bought for a song by a member of the BBC’s Antiques Road Trip team – sold for £20,000 at Lacy Scott & Knight (17.5% buyer’s premium) in Bury St Edmunds on May 13.

A rather shabby portrait of an unknown woman sparked a bidding battle at W&H Peacock (17.5% buyer’s premium) in Bedford on May 5.

In the continuing series looking through the keyhole of ‘bricks and mortar’ shops in 2017, ATG talks to Robert Frost, who runs Martlesham Antiques from a thatched cottage in Suffolk. It specialises in 18th and 19th century furniture.

A painting by British artist Evelyn Dunbar (1906- 60) set a record price at auction for the artist at Cheffins’ Art & Design sale on May 11.

“When I first visited, the hairs on the back of my neck shot up. I knew immediately this was a unique capsule – a bohemian delight where a generation of artists had been inspired, had lived, loved and socialised.”

English and Continental Antiques, the Suffolk dealership, has its second selling exhibition of 2017 on May 27.

An ‘unworked’ ivory gong has been removed from exhibition at Sandringham House on the grounds that it was being used for commercial purposes.

What Aylsham auction house Keys (20% buyer’s premium) considered one of the largest private collections of Lowestoft ever to come to market was a near sell-out on March 21.

Saxon Durrant started his business Metroretro in 1994. His Essex firm offers bespoke and reclaimed furniture and also provides props to film production companies. He will be exhibiting at Salvo Fair on June 23-25.

It wasn’t so much a Road to Damascus moment for Edward Crichton but more the road back to Bury St Edmunds, a car journey that provided the Lacy Scott & Knight auctioneer with much-needed think time.

Offered by Keys (20% buyer’s premium) on April 6, the Sir Malcolm Arnold Collection proved to be a problematic one.

Ken Garrard runs Origin Antiques with his father Steve. Their business is based in The Barn on Turkey Cock Lane near Colchester and sells antique, vintage and contemporary furniture.