UK

A week after Kinghams’ (23% buyer’s premium) inaugural Moreton-in-Marsh sale of British art pottery, the new Cotswolds rooms enjoyed a big hit in miniature – more specifically this portrait by one of Britain’s greatest miniaturists: John Smart (1743-1811).

Even 40 years ago, when the market for George Tinworth (1843-1913) anthropomorphic mouse groups was in its relative infancy, this 3½in (9cm) model above would have been a bargain at £1.

Intended to keep servants warm in the draughty watches of day and night at the entrances to grand houses, this porter’s chair was bought at Christie’s in 1989 and used in the vendor’s living room ever since.

A double-gourd dragon vase was one of two excellent Chinese pieces to emerge from a deceased Hampshire estate into Selborne auction house Hannam’s (23% buyer’s premium) rooms on May 4.

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

Exhibition at firm’s new premises focuses on headdress and headwear

Following the closure earlier this year of the Pickering Antiques Centre in North Yorkshire, which opened in 2018, manager Mark Witherington has found a new home in the town for some of the dealers.

Works from either a distinguished collection or well-known owner offered with appealing estimates are an enticing prospect at auction.

Bid to £2000 at Dominic Winter (20% buyer’s premium) was a 1712 first of Francis Bragge’s 'Witchcraft Farther Display’d', a rare work that opens with an account of the case of Jane Wenham – the last woman to be condemned for witchcraft in England.

A selection of 17 upcoming lots from auctions taking place around the UK.

A couple of Winston Churchill letters were among the more successful lots in a second selection from a History in Manuscript collection* formed over the last 20 years and offered at Sotheby’s (26/20/13.9% buyer’s premium).

This late 18th century watercolour of the famous cascades at Neptune’s Grotto in Tivoli forms part of a private collection of works on paper currently offered in Classic Ground: Travels in Italy, an online exhibition at Karen Taylor Fine Art.

Michael Mills and his family, the new owners of the now renamed Antiques & Retro Antiques Centre at Hemswell Cliff, launched their business on May 1.

An actor and theatre director who turned to dealing when work dried up during the pandemic is standing at his first antiques fair on Sunday, May 23, at the Dorking Halls in Surrey.

As the son of an entomologist and ornithologist, the artist David Morrison Reid-Henry (1919-77) was destined for a career observing wildlife and nature.

This late 17th century portrait depicts Lady Frances Brudenell, Countess of Newburgh (c.1677-1736), an early victim of salacious journalism.

Joy O’Meara of Jay Fairs is disappointed but sanguine about the news that the parish hall in the Oxfordshire village of Benson will close for refurbishment from June to October, thus causing her to cancel her monthly antique and vintage fairs at the venue.

Good art at a great price in regional sales.

Bloomfield Auctions (15% buyer’s premium) in Belfast achieved a house record on May 11 with the sale of this William De Morgan vase for £15,000.

This Fijian kava bowl, or daveniyaqona, carved in the form of a shallow figure, would have been used for both the consumption of kava (yaqona – the intoxicating liquor of the pepper plant) by priests during religious rites and to hold sacred oil.