London

Works by two of the biggest names in art history put in a strong performance at the latest series of Old Master auctions in London.

London’s Treasure House Fair concluded last week after a seven-day run and many sales.

Almost singlehandedly, Sir Laurence Whistler (1912-2000) revived the tradition of British diamond point engraving in the post-war era. His stippled glass goblets were particularly innovative: engraved on both sides of the bowl with views of the English countryside, they create an illusion of perspective.

Chelsea Red Anchor period ‘Hans Sloane’ plates are named with reference to the royal physician, traveller, and natural historian who helped transform the Chelsea Physic Garden into a centre of botanical knowledge during the Enlightenment.

Among the great Beilby discoveries of recent times was the emergence - from two separate sources across 14 years - of six small firing glasses decorated in red, yellow and white enamel with Masonic emblems.

Ceramics expert’s collection sold at auction included notable pieces made on Merseyside but also a Limehouse cup that proved very popular with bidders

When William John Kennedy (1930-2021) and his wife were in the process of moving house in the mid-2000s, they found a box tucked away in the back of a closet.

E&H Manners, the Kensington Church Street ceramics specialist of more than 30 years, tried something new this year: a summer exhibition.

Courtesy of Dava Sobel’s 1995 best-seller, the compelling story of a Yorkshire horologist’s struggle to receive a prize for creating a reliable and accurate method for determining longitude at sea is well known.

Only a very few coin dies have survived from antiquity so there was great interest in the Hellenistic examples offered by Apollo Art Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) on June 8.

This terracotta sculpture, 'The Triumph of Silenus', is among the highlights at Willoughby Gerrish’s exhibition 'Alfred Drury and the New Sculpture Movement'.