UK

When this portrait of a young woman was first exhibited in the early 1930s, critics remarked on its “intensity and vital quality”, “the charming head” and the “wonderful life-like expression”.

As with so many other businesses, art and antiques dealerships go into overdrive for the intense selling period up to Christmas. Here is a selection of five items from exhibitions and the latest catalogues.

Losses narrowed for stamps, coins and medals business Stanley Gibbons in the six months to September 30.

Personal devotional prayer books, known as a Book of Hours, were popular among the wealthy and powerful in late medieval Europe. Illuminated with miniature paintings depicting the life of Christ, the Virgin Mary and saints, they were sometimes personalised for the patrons who commissioned them.

One of the rarest pieces in Suffolk House Antiques’ Christmas selling exhibition is a Georgian candle stand in fruitwood and elm. The back would have protected the flame so that the person using it would have uninterrupted light even in a draughty house. Examples bearing the original backs do not always show up intact.

IACF has announced a change to the three-day antiques and collectors’ fairs held in Shepton Mallet at the Royal Bath and West Showground five times a year.

Invented in the 19th century but outmoded by word processors then computers, typewriters are now having a resurgence in the collecting world.

The height of fashion nearly three centuries ago, this 18th century doll’s dress caught the eye at C&T’s (20% buyer’s premium) specialist sale in Tunbridge Wells.

Two November sales underlined the current strength of the field of British studio pottery.

Specialist Philip Smith, head of the 20th Century & Modern British Art departments at the London outlet of Edinburgh auction house Lyon & Turnbull (25% buyer’s premium), believes studio ceramics should be classed as art.

Less often seen than Suffragette propaganda and considerably less PC these days, a brass and enamel fob badge for the National League for Opposing Woman had its international admirers at Ipswich auction house Lockdales (19.5% buyer’s premium).

Run by Devon County Antiques Fairs for many years, the renamed monthly Saturday Exeter Matford Antiques and Collectors’ Fair was taken over by SP Fairs, aka Sue Ede and family, last year.

Albert Moulton Foweraker’s (1873-1942) main interest as a watercolourist was the effect of blue moonlight on the landscape.

A vase by the great cameo glass artist George Woodall (1850-1925) was offered at auction for the first time at Bonhams’ sale of Fine Glass and British Ceramics last week.

Antiques and luxury items platform 1stdibs is increasing its monthly subscription fee to dealers by 42%, from £350 to £500. The firm says the move reflects the increasing cost of maintaining the online portal.