UK

Works of art, tapestries, jewellery and books from the collection of Laurence William Hodson (1864-1933), an art collector and patron to William Morris and other leading artists of the Arts & Crafts Movement, are to be offered across three sales at Dreweatts and Bloomsbury Auctions.

Vintage luggage made by Louis Vuitton was a fitting addition to this year’s aptly named ‘Travel in Style’ ski sale at Christie’s South Kensington.

In a letter to customers, Andrew Granger, the boss of now defunct saleroom The Auction Company Broadway, has spoken of his “deep regret and sorrow” at its closure.

Eric Knowles has joined the team at Dreweatts and Bloomsbury Auctions as a consultant.

Sherborne auctioneers Charterhouse posted a new house record today when this 16.5in (42cm) maiolica istoriato charger sold for £460,000.

Sotheby’s evening sale of Contemporary art in London was led by a Francis Bacon triptych which sold to a German collector at £12.25m.

Gloucestershire auctioneers Dominic Winter are offering a reward for information leading to the return of 42 lots which were stolen in a smash-and-grab raid on their South Cerney premises.

Mayfair gallery Agnew’s, the 195-year-old family business best known for Old Masters, will close on April 30 after exhibiting for the last time at ‘The European Fine Art Fair’ in Maastricht next month.

The highlight of the recent Decorative Art and Design sale conducted by Sworders of Stansted Mountfitchet was this Wedgwood Fairyland lustre malfrey pot and cover designed by Daisy Makeig-Jones (1881-1945).

An important private collection of Beatrix Potter books, manuscripts, artwork, photographs, figurines and collectables is being offered for sale at Bloomsbury Auctions on February 27.

A 19th/early 20th century totem pole brightly painted and carved with a beaver, a bear, a whale and a surmounted eagle with outspread wings is to go under the hammer at Duke’s of Dorchester in Dorset on February 14.

The latest sales of Impressionist and Modern art in London posted a strong overall performance as private buyers showed a growing appetite for works by major names.

This Arts and Crafts music cabinet, entered into a recent sale at Robertson’s of Kinbuck, near Dunblane, without reserve, turned out to be a hitherto lost design by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Peers in the House of Lords have made a last-ditch plea to the Government to scrap plans to review design rights under copyright law.

The collection of close to 500 silver and gold objects donated to the Ashmolean museum in Oxford by the late dealer-collector Michael Wellby has been described as the most important bequest of its type for over a century.

It looks too good to eat, doesn’t it? This is Sotheby’s Surrealist Tea, concocted by the Sotheby’s Cafe as a cheeky marketing gimmick (albeit a tasty one) to promote their Surrealist Art evening sale on February 5 at New Bond Street.

The merry-go-round of regional antiques fairs around the UK continues and next up is ‘The Pavilions of Harrogate Antiques & Fine Art Fair’ organised by Cooper Events from February 8-10.

‘Homes & Antiques’ magazine has announced the shortlists for its 2013 Antiques Awards.

The handwritten draft of one of John Betjeman’s best-known poems, ‘The Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel’, is just one of the gems in the next tranche of the Roy Davids Collection to appear at Bonhams Bond Street.

A group of hitherto unknown 19th century documents has come to light revealing illegal trafficking of Chinese people to Latin America where they were forced into slavery.