UK

While Banksy prints abound at auction, the number of original works that emerge is understandably much less.

A number of Banksy’s earlier prints from the early 2000s feature the subject of a rat.

MADAM – As I read the ‘Fees proposal for ivory exemptions’ story (front page, ATG No 2484), I was overwhelmed by an attack of the Victor Meldrews.

This bust of the first American president George Washington (1732-99) is titled to the base, and signed and dated 'R Trentanove Fecc in Roma, 1827'.

The sale at Adam Partridge (20% buyer’s premium) in Macclesfield on March 18-19 included a collection of 18th century English porcelain figures offered in around 30 lots.

Sold online for a far higher than predicted £600 in Norfolk on February 11 was a calling card of William Marwood (1820-83), who for many years was an official hangman.

Bonhams (27.5/25/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) has been offering works by Banksy for some time now in a number of different sale types including Contemporary art auctions and specialist print offerings.

Trading with EU member states has become more difficult and expensive since the UK left the European Union, but one dealer may have found a way to avoid the bureaucratic hurdles.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

The Winter Antiques Sale at Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) was topped by consecutive bids of £17,000 each for two Regency white marble busts.

At 20in (50cm) long, this stylised tinplate racer and driver was the largest toy car made by the German toymaker Johann Distler.

Among the Banksy works sold outside London recently was a screenprint of Trolleys that made £40,000 at Tennants’ (20% buyer’s premium) of Leyburn in North Yorkshire.

Anthony Bridgman is head of restoration at Westland London where he has worked since the 1990s. Established by Geoff Westland in 1969, the firm deals in architectural and decorative antiques and has built one of the largest collections of antique chimney pieces in the world, with some 750 examples.

This 3in (7.5cm) brass and ivorine fishing reel is inscribed to the face 'Ustonson & Peters, Makers to the Queen, 48 Bell Yard, Temple Bar, London'.

Offered as part of a sale at Taylors (24% buyer’s premium) of Montrose with an estimate of just £20-30 was a catalogue of the library at Fasque House, or Fasque Castle as it is also known.

The live webcast auction of Urban and Contemporary art held by Tate Ward (25% buyer’s premium) on March 24 proved well timed, coming just a day after Christie’s sold Banksy’s 'Game Changer' for £14.4m.

Two very different ceramic objects illuminated The Spring Auction at Halls (20% buyer’s premium) in Shrewsbury on March 17.

These gold-mounted hardstone buckles are among only a few surviving examples of jewellery by the Dresden master goldsmith Johann Christian Neuber (1736-1808).

“It’s been heart-breaking to keep cancelling fairs as people are so keen to trade but the good news is that our event in the Westpoint Arena at the Devon Showground, Exeter, is going ahead on Saturday and Sunday, June 5-6,” says Nick Bayliss of Continuity Fairs.

Will Thomas, managing director of IACF, surely speaks for the trade with his fervent hope that successive pandemic lockdowns have now come to an end.