UK

THE bulk of the 208-lot Irish sale held at Christie’s South Kensington (17.5% buyer’s premium) on May 17 was middle-to-low range material from the studio of the late painter, socialite and friend of the Prince of Wales Derek Hill (1916-2000) but it produced the busiest saleroom expert-in-charge William Porter had seen for a picture sale.

UK: THE Internet has, so far, hardly lived up to the initial claims made for it in the auctioneering world, but it does have its merits, as the Staffordshire firm Wintertons will attest.

The loan exhibitions held by London jewellery dealers Wartski have become something of an event in the summer calendar. They focus on specific areas of the jeweller’s art and previously the spotlight has been turned on such subjects as the tiara in 1997, and two years ago an impressive show dedicated to the work of the Parisian firm Falize Frères.

A classic entry in Christie's South Kensington's Classic Arts and Crafts sale on May 2 provided one of the day’s top results – £6800 for this pair of 2ft x 12in (61 x 31cm) c.1900 stained glass panels decorated with mediaeval landscapes and a text inscription.

UK: A striking amalgam of European form and Oriental decoration, this Meissen derived Kakiemon tankard was a rare hybrid, apparently one of only four in public record, and it consequently attracted worldwide interest at Woolley and Wallis’s sale in Salisbury on May 23.

UK: MAINLY operating as a consultant these days, Robert Finan holds just two sales a year at The Old Ship Hotel in Mere, Wiltshire, giving him the time to assemble events which not only sell well – the 376 lots in April enjoyed a 91 per cent success rate and a hammer total of £187,325 – but are guaranteed to bring specialist bidders across a wide range of interests.

It may look like a cross between an ancient rolodex and a tinpot bandstand but this is actually a rather stylish piece of late Victorian heavy industrial equipment.

UK: At over 300 lots, Christie's South Kensington’s modern design auction on May 16 was a large and wide ranging gathering, (it would have been even larger had the auctioneers not withdrawn a 17-lot collection of Italian glass).

THE London fairs season gets seriously underway on June 7 with the opening of the The Fine Art and Antiques Fair, which runs at Olympia until June 17.

UK: THE football season may now have ended but back on April 24 when the Chester rooms of Phillips (15 per cent buyer’s premium) held their bi-annual sporting sale the season was at its height.

UK: This sixth-plate image of the Japanese sailor Sentaro, nicknamed Sam Patch, was a top priced entry in a successful section of early Daguerreotypes offered at Christie’s South Kensington on May 11.

UK: London and Cotswold dealers secured the lion’s share of the top lots at Holloways’ antique sale in Banbury on April 25.

Devon auctioneers’ Rendells mammoth 2000-lot sale saw keen interest and strong prices for a selection of horological pieces.

UK: AS with spoons, silver takes on an extra glow in the currently buoyant market for tea caddies an example of which came up at the April 26/27 sale at Taunton held by Greenslade Taylor Hunt’s (15% buyer’s premium).

In the wake of the demise of Sotheby’s coin department, the good news is that one London auctioneer is making a comeback.

Robin Day shot to fame as the winner of MoMA’s international low-cost furniture competition in 1948, but the bidding for a pair of Forum Lounge chairs, one shown, in the Post-War section of the sale at Phillips Edinburgh (15% buyer’s premium) on April 27 was anything but subdued.

After more than 30 years in storage, the Hereford Screen, one of the metalwork masterpieces of the Victorian age, has been conserved and returned to its former glory. Richly intricate and colourful, this Gothic Revival choir screen was made for Hereford Cathedral and will be unveiled at the V&A on Thursday, May 24.

UK: This month has been a vintage one for photographic images in the UK, with over £4.5m netted between the four sales held in London and Exeter at Sotheby’s, CSK and Bearnes between May 10 and 12.

UK: Two Victorian mahogany bookcases topped this Ambrose , Essex sale – a library model with four glazed doors and four panel doors, 5ft 8in (1.73m) wide and a straightforward double door bookcase with two frieze drawers, 4ft 6in (1.38m) wide, each attracting bids of £1250.

UK: Gathering new business from buyers unable to attend salerooms in Devon and Wales, these Wotton Gloucestershire rooms were one of a small handful to benefit from the foot and mouth plague.