London

Dulwich Picture Gallery launched a long overdue show of watercolours by Eric Ravilious (1903-42) last week, an artist unswayed by fashion whose paintings and designs encapsulate the spirit of inter-War England.

This 5in (12cm) high pair of Victorian salts in the form of kangaroos made by Bond Street silversmiths Hunt & Roskell sold for £18,000 at Catherine Southon’s latest sale at Farleigh Court Golf Club near East Croydon.

Over 700 lots from West Horsley Place in Surrey, the home of the late Mary Innes-Ker, Duchess of Roxburghe, are going under the hammer at Sotheby’s in May.

Lord Ashcroft is best known for Victoria Crosses as a collector, but the bravery of the Dambusters inspired his latest attempts to buy gallantry awards.

A remarkable hoard of coins shedding light on the power struggles between Vikings and Anglo-Saxons has come onto the open market in a highly unusual sale.

This portrait by Glyn Warren Philpot (1884-1937) was the star performer of pictures formerly in Sir Noël Coward’s collection sold at Christie’s South Kensington.

The BADA Antiques & Fine Art Fair opened last Wednesday on a sunny Duke of York Square in Chelsea, welcoming a steady stream of visitors.

Stable year-on-year values across art and antique exports as a whole mask major changes in influence among the UK’s trading partners in 2014.

“Most of us will never experience space, which explains why space-flown items are in such high demand. Their travels imbue them with an almost mystical aura.”

COMMENT: The TEFAF Report shows that the art market has fully recovered since the 2008 financial crash, but still faces a number of challenges, such as late or non-payment.

Christie’s South Kensington celebrated their 40th anniversary year with a 1970s themed party at their Old Brompton Road saleroom. Current staff, former employees and others connected with CSK turned out in droves on March 4 to raise a glass to the auction house.

How do you prevent your own identity as a dealer being subsumed by that of the fair at which you are exhibiting?

The online-only sale of a modern British gallantry award estimated at a hefty £100,000-120,000 was always going to be an interesting test of the market.

Sotheby’s have taken a 25% stake in RM, the classic and luxury car auctioneer, renaming the company RM Sotheby’s.

COMMENT: Former Olympia antiques fair director Victoria Borwick wants to be MP for Kensington & Chelsea. Let’s back her in our own interests, says ATG Editor Ivan Macquisten

Dulwich Picture Gallery have announced a major exhibition dedicated to Eric Ravilious (1903-42) from April 1 until August 31.

The curators of the ‘Inventing Impressionism’ exhibition at the National Gallery are giving a talk at the second edition of ‘VIEW: A Festival of Art History’ at the Institut français du Royaume-Uni in South Kensington on Saturday, February 28, at 7pm.

They called him Groovy Bob, “one of the most influential people of the London sixties scene” according to Paul McCartney and immortalised, handcuffed to Mick Jagger inside a police van, by Pop artist Richard Hamilton in the screenprint, Swingeing London 67.

Law change could cost millions and expose them to criminal charge risk as expired design rights come back into force and upgrade

Sotheby’s are re-starting dedicated sales of Scottish art, beginning in November 2015.