London

The latest sales of Impressionist & Modern art in London put in a mixed performance.

A silver casserole tureen was among the highlight sales during the early hours of The Art & Antiques Fair Olympia.

A clock made for King William and Queen Mary by Thomas Tompion (1639-1713) was hammered down for £1.6m atThe Clive Collection of Exceptional Clockssale on June 19 at Bonhams.

A group of pictures by self-taught Mendip artist John Caple is offered at Albemarle Street’s John Martin Gallery during this year’s Mayfair Art Weekend (MAW), the three-day festival event dedicated to the galleries in the heart of London.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

Urban Art is London’s largest annual open-air contemporary arts fair, pictured above. It runs every year in July showing 1000-plus pieces of work along the walls and railings on both sides of the tree-lined Josephine Avenue and neighbouring streets in Brixton.

Locks of Beethoven’s hair are known to have been taken from the composer on his deathbed in 1827, but an earlier and substantial sample featured in a recent London sale. Sold for £28,000 at Sotheby’s (25/20/13.9% buyer’s premium) against an estimate of £12,000-15,000, it is certainly a well-documented souvenir.

With an infamous lack of a ‘signature’ look, Northern Irish painter Colin Middleton (1910-83) is something of an art historical chameleon.

A poet and dramatist, Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, was once considered by many to be the true author of Shakespeare’s plays.

A rare 19th century pearlware horse is available to buyers visiting BADA’s inaugural staging of the BADA Collection at 46 Pimlico Road this summer.

An artwork painted with oil and sand is among the offerings at the inaugural Fair for Saatchi.

A festival of rugs and textiles organised by HALI magazine joins the busy line-up of London events this summer.

Among stand-out exhibitions in the well-represented area of works on paper at this year’s London Art Week (LAW) is a collection of drawings by the German artist Adolph Menzel (1815-1905).

While fairs remain a vital part of the art market calendar, the rich series of gallery selling exhibitions in Mayfair and St James’s this summer offer more chances to view and buy – at a different pace.

For close to three centuries buyers of art and antiques have been spoilt for choice in London. A city synonymous with archives, galleries, museums, conservators and curators, it continues to support long-standing streets of antiques dealers, centres and a plethora of regular fairs and markets. As this guide to the hotspots suggests, most of them are complementary rather than in competition, and all budgets are catered for.

As the battle for the ‘middle market’ heats up, the London auction scene today offers visitors a wider choice of items to buy and more places to bid for them.

For the British art and antiques trade, the summer ‘season’ still carries plenty of resonance, particularly in London. The days of rowing club colours at Henley and Georgian walnut at the Grosvenor House Hotel have given way to the plethora of June and July showpiece auctions and a clutch of fairs and dealer-led events – London Art Week, Olympia, Masterpiece London, and new kid on the block Fair For Saatchi.

Britain still has many ‘antiques’ towns and streets – those picturesque corners of the island populated by shops, galleries and centres that together act as a magnet for antiques tourists. Two of the largest communities of dealers close to London are Petworth and Hungerford, while a busy schedule of regular fairs and markets takes place to the south-west of London.

Housed in a remarkable purpose-built marquee, Masterpiece London returns to the grounds of the Royal Hospital in Chelsea for its tenth anniversary