UK

Neales-Kedleston Hall: The period between the wars and post-1945 saw the dissolution of many English country houses. The economic turmoil caused by conflict saw aristocratic families in dire financial straits and for many the only solution was to sell up and ship out.

“Pistol Sir – yes Sir – here you are sir – Revolver – most improved construction – 6 chambers sir – 2 for your wife – 2 for the destroyer of your happiness – 2 for yourself Sir – all the rage Sir – sell hundreds of ’em for bridal presents Sir !!!”....

Above right: the ‘Library’ portion of the Ken Paul Collection, a three-day sale of ‘antique’ film props that raised £1.5m at Sotheby’s last month was not large and was dispersed in eight job lots, but someone will doubtless have fun sorting through this collection of several hundred deeds, wills, leases, probates, transfers etc., mostly on vellum and largely 19th century, but including a few made-up props.

In the week when the death was announced of Kenneth Wolstenholme – the man whose legendary utterance “They think it’s all over... it is now!” capped England’s 1966 World Cup win – what could have been more appropriate than a world record for a football shirt at auction.

The brutality and horror of everyday life in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp can be seen in a collection of pen, ink and watercolour sketches to be offered on April 16 at Bonhams, New Bond Street’s sale of topographical pictures.

This previously undiscovered miniature on ivory of Lincolnshire dignitary Charles De Laet Waldo-Sibthorp is expected to take up to £2000 when it is offered for sale on April 24 at the Lincoln rooms of Thomas Mawer & Sons.

A CONMAN with an “appalling record”, who cheated antique dealers across the country has been jailed for six years at Salisbury Crown Court.

THE Heritage Lottery Fund have announced a grant of £404,500 to help the Walker Museum in Liverpool acquire an exquisite Weld Blundell Amber Cabinet, which was due for export.

The children’s books section of a Bloomsbury Book Auctions sale of March 7 amounted to no more than a dozen lots, but included several good things and a few interesting results.

The March 13 sale held by Dix Noonan Webb (17.625 per cent buyer’s premium) was one of the best general sales for quite some years. There is a general shortage of interesting material and the clientele is clearly well aware of this. The room was packed, there was hardly a seat for latecomers and prices were accordingly buoyant. This is very good news for the trade as a whole.

A silver trophy in the shape of an artist’s palette is unusual enough without it being designed to reward a scientist. But this award dates from a period in Irish art history when painters were proficient, but their paint was poor.

One item for a fiver, another at five figures – the 1400-lot sale held by Keys (10% buyer’s premium) on February 20 was a classic of the old-fashioned, no- reasonable-consignment-refused kind at the Aylsham Salerooms in Norfolk. Most offerings over the two days sold at three figures but there were half a dozen or so lots which went over the £1000 mark and one which really aroused interest.

VINTAGE FILM POSTERS: Cult film classics such as Flash Gordon, The Mummy and Dr X may no longer be the crowd-pullers they once were, but these cinematic greats live on through their original advertising posters.

What will £1500 buy in today’s picture market? If quality is going to be my criterion and oil painting is my medium, then not very much, one might be forced to conclude after reading the latest report on how the market is polarising between an increasingly expensive best and a totally undesirable rest.

TIM Hirsch, managing director of Spink, has succeeded in leading a management buy-out of the firm from Christie’s.

One of the greatest public works that Sir Edwin Lutyens undertook was the erection of a doll’s house for Queen Mary in 1923. A miniature palace inside Windsor Castle, Mary’s doll’s house was more opulently decorated than the humble abodes of her loyal, grown-up subjects.

The Fine Art Valuation degree course at Southampton Institute has lost almost half its teaching staff in the past year with the student intake dropping 60 per cent since 1998.

This bright red Dinky Holland Coachcraft streamlined van was one of only a few thousand, which in terms of Dinky’s prolific production rate is very few, to be made during their single year of production in 1935.

A ROYAL remarriage will take place at Parham House in Sussex at the end of this month between King Philip IV of Spain and Elizabeth of France.

PORTRAIT MINIATURES: A substantial selection of silhouettes and a collection of wax portraits boosted the content of a 311-lot middle ranking sale of portrait miniatures held by Bonhams on March 12.