UK

Early example note from Sir Christopher Wren issue takes group lot to high four figure price

This painting of Mont Blanc as seen from the Lago Chérouit, Val d’Aosta, Italy, is among the works featured in this year’s Peaks and Glaciers exhibition at John Mitchell Fine Paintings.

Cups with coconut bowls mounted in silver or silver-gilt were fashionable rarities in western Europe throughout the 16th and early 17th century. At the time the coconut was, like other ‘exotics’ such as nautilus shells or imported pottery and porcelain, held in high esteem.

Spotted sitting among modern pottery on the windowsill of a small cottage, a meiping porcelain vase with ‘robin’s egg’ blue glaze was the plum piece.

Spotlight on some of the antiques and art trade attractions available to increasingly high-spending visitors

When the 2018 Ivory Act was being debated key campaigners (Born Free, many MPs including Angela Rayner and numerous celebrity supporters -notably Stephen Fry and Deborah Meaden) argued that the Act would IN NO WAY cause the destruction of antiques.

The Assay Office in Norwich closed in 1702, so secular objects in particular that bear the city’s mark are rare. Rarer still are pieces bearing the mark of the only female silversmith registered in Norwich towards the end of that period.

A couple of prints by leading names from the early 20th century drew attention at recent regional sales despite some notable condition issues.

Paintings dominated the sale of contents of Meldon Park, Northumberland, but furniture going abroad also made a significant contribution.

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

Research reveals £265,000 auction purchase is a celebrated work from Grand Ducal workshops

This 13 x 13in (33 x 33cm) brick is from the walls of Babylon and dates from 604-562BC.

While they may not appear such comfortable bedfellows today, the novel weapons of mass destruction created during the First World War were deemed a perfectly suitable subject for novelty trinkets of the day.

For many British schoolchildren Roy of the Rovers was just as famous as any of the real-life footballers of the day.