London

Visitors to the ABA’s 'Firsts: London’s Rare Book Fair' spent more than £3m over the events three days.

Caroline Penman, organiser of the Chelsea Antiques Fair since 1983, is hoping to find a new owner willing to maintain the venerable event.

When Sir Robert Burdett (1716-97), 4th Baron Bramcote, undertook the remodelling of his early 18th century home Foremarke Hall from 1759-62, he contracted Thomas Chippendale to refurnish the house. The cabinet maker – one of several employed in the project – was paid around £1000 for the giltwood seating furniture which is thought to have included at least 10 elbow chairs, two window seats and a sofa.

An 1817 miniature of Napoleon by British painter Henry Bone (1755-1834) is among the highlights at Ellison Fine Art’s exhibition of portrait miniatures this month.

'What Happened to Good Design', a summer selling exhibition at Hill House in Kensington Church Street, was inspired by a show at design shop Heal’s in 1982 of the same name. It offers works from the Arts & Crafts period and beyond.

James Butterwick is a dealer in Russian art of the early 20th century in London.

MADAM – I am mortified to find myself at the cusp of ending one of London’s oldest and favourite art and antiques fairs, unless someone would like to take it on?

A rare early Worcester plate, c.1752, painted in Chinese famille verte style is offered by dealer Robyn Robb at 'A Collectors’ Paradise', the annual group selling show of pottery and porcelain in St James’s. Offered for £9500, it features a bird perched on a flowering prunus tree.

This abstract oil on paper is among the works on paper by the modern British painter Adrian Heath (1920-92) currently on show at St James’s gallery Alan Wheatley Art.

A rare Roman gold aureus, found by a metal detectorist in a field in Kent earlier this year, was hammered down at Dix Noonan Webb last week for a house record £460,000.

Sotheby’s believes it has found a missing piece from the Lewis chessmen hoard – the cache of 12th or 13th century walrus ivory carvings that chiefly resides in the British Museum.

An impressive 8in (20cm) high ice pail, cover and liner made what is thought to be a record auction result for Swansea porcelain when it sold for £38,000 hammer at Bonhams in Knightsbridge on June 5.

Connect – The Independent Art Fair, which debuted at London’s Mall Galleries in January, has added a June event to the 2020 calendar.

The latest week of Russian art auctions in London generated £35.8m including premium, the highest total for a June series in this category since 2014.

French commode forms good example of selling strategy at long-standing London event

Undoubtedly the most evocative account of the workshop of the celebrated clockmaker Joseph Knibb comes from a letter written by the Restoration-era politician Richard Legh (1635-87) of Lyme Hall in Cheshire to his young wife, Elizabeth.