Oxfordshire

Jay Fairs aka Joy O’Meara, who launched her fairs in Oxfordshire in the 1980s with her sister Jill Napper, is excited about the return after a four-month absence of her popular monthly antiques fair at the parish hall in Benson, near Oxford, on Sunday, August 16.

The sale held by Swan Fine Art (20% buyer’s premium) in Tetsworth on May 6 included a fine-quality ventriloquist’s doll, c.1930.

This deluxe Victorian travel accessory is a ‘campaign wardrobe’ made by Robinson & Sons of Ilkley, Yorkshire.

Susanne Schulz-Falster deals in rare books from Woodstock, Oxfordshire.

Sarah Colegrave is an art dealer and consultant working in London and Oxfordshire. She carries a stock of mainly British 19th and 20th century paintings, drawings, watercolours and sculptures. She next stands at the Wilton House Antiques Fair (March 6-8) and The Open Art Fair (March 18-24).

Forty-plus dealers will be converging on the Holt Hotel at Steeple Aston, near Oxford, to stand at Antiques@The Holt on Saturday and Sunday March 14-15.

Fawley Hill fair relocates down the road to the Meadows where the royal regatta is held

As part of a House & Garden sale, the top-seller at Mallams (22.5% buyer’s premium) in Abingdon was a set of six stained-glass panels by James Powell & Sons of Whitefriars.

“From our dealers’ viewpoint the important factor is that the kind of people now attracted to our antiques fair are serious collectors and it’s rare that anyone leaves without making some significant purchases.”

Emmerdale actor’s love of Ayrton and circle seen at Tetsworth estate sale

Dealer Manfred Schotten “grew up skiing in Bavaria, started to play golf, was taken fly-fishing by friends and started noticing sporting antiques and memorabilia. This is when it really started.”

A Battle of Culloden period Clan MacTavish silver inlaid basket-hilted back sword sold for £4800, just below top estimate, at the Antony Cribb (22% buyer’s premium) auction on July 30.

Italian sculptors were the hottest property as garden statuary flourished at summer sales in the Home Counties.

Desmond Morris on his many lives as a zoologist, painter, author and collector

A chinoiserie corner cupboard bearing the paper trade label of the Queen Anne furniture maker John Coxed has been sold by Oxfordshire dealership Alexander George Fine Antiques.

Bookings are significantly up this year for the Fawley Decorative Fair which is held on the Fawley Hill estate near Henley-on-Thames and runs from Friday to Sunday, May 31-June 2.

A country house car boot to raise funds for a newly opened specialist equestrian centre in Much Wenlock, Shropshire, will run at the 800-acre Isle Estate at Bicton near Shrewsbury on Sunday May 12.