UK

Dealers tell ATG what it will take for the trade to handle market challenges and seize the digital initiative. This is an extended version available only to digital subscribers.

Boosting client confidence and keeping them better informed via new technology head the list of priorities for dealers, according to the LAPADA Members Survey 2017.

The calm and grassy plain by the River Welland in the middle of the town of Stamford where Field Dog Fairs holds a biannual event was not always so serene.

Sold for £6000 in a Forum Auctions (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) sale of March 30 was a copy of one of the earliest books on swimming.

The time has come for the second of Robert Young Antiques’ three annual events. The Exhibition of Antiques Folk Art is the only one to take place in the dealer’s Battersea gallery and this year runs from May 11-20.

“Wait a minute. You’re putting my gloves in jail? This is awful. How can you put my gloves in jail? They ain’t done nothing… yet!”

Antique dolls supremo Judy Bebber has been organising the biannual Kensington Doll Show at Kensington Town Hall for 20 years.

Latest in a number of outstanding pieces of English furniture to surface and succeed at provincial auctions was this pair of satinwood inlaid demi-lune card tables, above, offered at Stride & Son (20% buyer’s premium including VAT) at Chichester on March 31.

A collection of early 20th century German works on paper, brought to England in the possession of a German academic who fled the Nazis on the eve of the Second World War, appeared at Canterbury Auction Galleries (20% buyer’s premium) on April 4-5.

Catch of the day at Cockermouth auctioneers Mitchells’ (20% buyer’s premium) sporting sale on April 8 was a cast of a salmon. The 48lb fish, cast by Mallochs of Perth, was estimated at £1800-2000 but was reeled in by a Scottish enthusiast at £5200.

A scarce complete portfolio of 26 prints from Erté’s (1892-1990) famed Alphabet Suite appeared at Henry Adams (20% buyer’s premium) on April 12 in Chichester.

Described as a building full of clues and symbolism created by its architects John Seely and Paul Paget, Eltham Palace was designed in 1933 for the vastly rich art collectors Virginia and Stephen Courtauld of textiles fame.

This 176oz Victorian presentation silver centrepiece offered for sale at Woolley & Wallis of Salisbury on April 25 has a strong Dutch connection.

ATG’s weekly selection of items on sale at auctions and dealerships.

A week before their new joint space opens, dealers Charles Wallrock and David Brooker stand in the shell of their gallery sipping cups of tea, admiring the fresh paint job and speculating on how long it will take to lay the carpet.