London

Texas auction house Heritage Auctions has opened in the Shepherd Market area of London’s Mayfair after taking over dealership London Coin Galleries.

Dealers celebrated early successes at the 20/21 British Art Fair and LAPADA Art & Antiques Fair last week.

Christian and Ben Scrimgeour’s weekly Sunday vintage market in Flat Iron Square in Southwark Street, near London Bridge, is also now held on a Saturday, making a weekend of it.

Less than six months after holding its first auction in its Pall Mall home, Stanley Gibbons’ The Fine Art Auction Group (TEFAAG) has left the central London premises and is in the process of selling the lease.

Bid to £45,000 at Sotheby’s (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) was an extensively revised and corrected autograph draft of what was to become Charles Dickens’ tale of ‘Mrs Gamp with the Strolling Players’.

Three gallery shows will focus on Scottish art of the later 20th century.

While plenty of general auctions around the country feature a range of 19th century and early 20th century paintings, Bonhams is staging its next dedicated sale in this category on September 27.

A rediscovered Francis Bacon is to be offered at Christie’s next month with a £7m-10m estimate.

A list of events which are part of this month's Coinex.

The first major fairs of the new season are only just around the corner. The LAPADA Art & Antiques Fair at Berkeley Square is always strong on antique jewellery, this year (September 15-20) attracting more than a dozen specialist dealers from both London and overseas.

Something shocking happened on Jermyn Street in 1966. Among the more conservative of London shopping districts – the place for a badger-hair shaving brush or a decent pair of sheepskin slippers – at a stroke it became cool. The charismatic Italian émigré Andrew Grima (1921-2007) had opened a jewellery emporium.

Two Mayfair exhibitions starting this month feature modern art, one focusing on British sculpture, the other on French painting.

Coin enthusiasts have plenty to think about as they arrive in London for the annual Coinex fair.

Tim Sutton organises the successful annual two-day Urban Art Fair in Brixton in July, where this year around 15,400 visitors spent nearly £15,000 buying works from 200 artists. Art was strung out along the railings and on stalls in Josephine Avenue.

The new art hub at Cromwell Place plans to host exhibitions by international museums, release specially developed technology for art-world professionals and provide flexible working spaces and art storage, it was revealed last week.