London

Alison Davis and Alan Old, who run So Last Century, organiser of quality, 20th century vintage markets at three venues in south London, are heading up north.

The UK government will ensure that ivory regulations are balanced and with “appropriate exemptions”, the new minister for arts, heritage and tourism told the Art Business Conference last week.

An unpublished letter written by Nelson Mandela from his prison cell on Robben Island is to be offered at Bonhams’ South African sale in New Bond Street on September 14.

Sotheby’s is to test the temperature of the market for Japanese art with its first dedicated sale in London for more than a decade.

Derbyshire’s Hansons Auctioneers is opening a second London location.

London coin dealership Sovereign Rarities will conduct its first auction on September 25.

Mullany Haute Epoque Fine Art opens the doors to its new gallery on Bury Street, St James’s, this autumn, taking the premises formerly occupied by a silver dealership.

Jewellery is the single biggest element of the LAPADA Art & Antiques Fair (September 13-19), with 13 specialist dealers and a handful of others who will include items of personal adornment alongside decorative arts or antiquities.

On September 18-19 Sotheby’s will offer an American library on the history of computing formed by the late Erwin Tomash (1921-2012), a sale that runs to 944 lots in all but is divided into two sections.

When is the right time to buy a piece of rare antique silver – a George III caviar dish, say?

An exhibition dedicated to the colourful creations of modern jewellery designer Wendy Ramshaw (b.1939) runs at the Goldsmiths’ Fair in London from September 25-October 7.

Far more fluent in the language of jewellery and stones, the Georgians and Victorians would have immediately made the link between snakes and eternal love. The ouroboros – a serpent swallowing its own tail – was commonly understood as a symbol of eternity.

Ahead of its season-opening September 18 jewellery sale, Chiswick Auctions invited Jessica Diamond, the suitably-named jewellery editor for 'Condé Nast Traveller', to pick her top 10 lots from the catalogue.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

A final selection from the extremely varied Christie’s (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) major summer sale ranges from the scientific works of such giants as Newton and Galileo to the first jigsaw puzzle.

Mayfair gallery Connaught Brown is staging the first solo exhibition of French Neo-Impressionist and Symbolist painter Henri Martin (1860-1943) to take place in London for a number of years.