London

Two high-quality works on paper made their presence felt at the top end of the Old Masters market during the latest series in London.

Collaboration between photography and sculpture specialists is both the theme and the method behind Huxley-Parlour’s exhibition 'Auguste Rodin: The Photographs'.

Portuguese silver and jewellery dealer J Baptista is to expand into London by opening a stand in Grays Antique Centre.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

The so-called auricular style – all organic fluid lines and asymmetrical shapes populated by marine invertebrates and reptiles – can first be found in the 1598 ornament book of Northern Mannerism, Architectura…, by Wendel Dietterlin of Stuttgart.

An early Anglo-Dutch portrait of the swashbuckling English sea captain Sir Francis Drake topped Bonhams’ Old Master paintings sale on July 4 in New Bond Street. It sold for £290,000, just below its juicy £300,000-500,000 guide.

This novelty silver scent bottle, below, appealing to two niche sections largely immune to the swings of the larger silver market, was a target for collectors when offered at Chiswick Auctions (25% buyer’s premium).

Comprising some 3000 books ranging in date from 1473-1840, one of the finest collections of books on agriculture ever assembled was dispersed by Forum Auctions (30/24/14.4% buyer’s premium inc VAT) in a July 10-11 sale that totalled £1.6m.

‘Affordable mid-point fair’ will open in January to encourage face-to-face trade

London saleroom Dix Noonan Webb has bought the 'Britannia Medal Fair' “to ensure that it can remain at the Victory Services Club”, the central London venue where it has attracted dealers and collectors for more than 30 years.

Asian Art in London, the event that promotes London as the centre of the global Asian art trade, has increased the number of its auction house participants for the 21st edition (November 1-10).

Estimated at £200,000-300,000, the 'Hours of Isabella d’Este' sold at £340,000 (plus buyer’s premium) at Bloomsbury Auctions’ sale of Western and Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures on July 10.

While the big-money lots often steal the headlines, much of the antiquities market remains affordable.

A hint of defiance was in the air during the latest round of London antiquities sales held at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Bonhams (25/20/12.5-12.9% buyer’s premium).

A copy of the posthumously published, 1633 first edition of John Donne’s Poems in a neatly rebacked but contemporary sheep binding is a desirable volume in itself.

During 'Masterpiece London', Zoe Karafylakis Sperling of Hauser & Wirth, the international modern and contemporary art gallery, reflected that the event made for a change from the gallery’s typical large, frenetic, contemporary art fairs.