London

Sotheby’s has opened a new shop in its Bond Street galleries retailing art, design and luxury items.

Estimated at £20,000- 30,000, a façon de Venise gilded, enamel led and engraved vase and cover sold for £70,000 (plus 27.5/25% buyer’s premium) last week.

Thomas Del Mar (25% buyer’s premium) brightened the end of the summer season in London on July 30 with a 300–lot sale of arms and armour.

Challenging times mean lots of extra legwork – but London sale shows how it can be rewarded.

Two eye-catching but very different armours, one suited to royal palace style and the other more to purist taste, captured bidders’ attention at a London sale.

A north Italian close helmet for field use, c.1550-60, with etched decoration which made £13,000 at Thomas Del Mar (25% buyer’s premium) on July 30.

London ceramics dealer and Swedish Nordic design specialist team up for joint show

Letter highlights early fossil fan Mary Anning who is soon to be the subject of a film.

Jean-David Malat founded Mayfair Contemporary art business JD Malat Gallery in 2017. He is among the participants in this year’s Mayfair Art Weekend.

On the same day as Chiswick Auctions’ British & European Fine Art auction (see main report), a sale of Old Master Paintings & Drawings took place immediately beforehand. Comprising nearly 50 lots, it totalled £102,500 including buyer’s premium.

You might not have been able to get to Portobello Road antiques market on Sunday, September 27, but you could have tried instead a fair on Instagram which ran on the same day from 11am to 1pm.

Separated for many years, portraits of two brothers by WBE Ranken (1881-1941) came up at auction at different London salerooms last week. The fact that they emerged on the market simultaneously was seemingly pure coincidence.

Edward Bawden (1903-89) was one of a number of artists invited to submit designs ahead of Britain’s changeover to decimal coinage. Designs were invited for six coins: the 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p and 50p pieces.