UK

More West End art dealers will have to move premises as the trend for galleries finding their leases not being renewed continues.

When it comes to rock and pop memorabilia, and The Beatles in particular, if the provenance is not only right but of the first magnitude, prices can soar.

This stoneware model of a rhino led the latest sale at Cottees which proved to be one of the most successful the Poole auctioneers have held in recent years.

While anthropomorphic bird figures have long been seen as the most desirable products of the Martin Brothers’ art pottery, recently there has been an upsurge in demand for their equally characterful grotesque models.

Two men have been sentenced to a year in jail after admitting the theft of a sundial sculpture and bronze plinth from the Henry Moore Foundation.

It took over 15 minutes to sell, but when the gavel finally came down at £26.5m the Raphael from Chatsworth had become the second most expensive Old Master ever sold at auction – and the priciest drawing of all time.

Back in 1998 Lacy Scott & Knight of Bury St Edmunds were instructed by local art teacher and model enthusiast John Clibbon to sell the majority of a large collection of tinplate toys.

Clarion Events have decided to cancel ‘The National Fine Arts and Antiques Fair’, scheduled for January 16-20 at Birmingham’s NEC because of a lack of exhibitors.

Steven B. Bruce of Warwickshire have postponed their December sales following the latest in an unfortunate series of events which have disrupted their sales programme.

Mystery surrounds the future of Prospect Auction Rooms in Hampshire, which seems to have shut.

With London now accustomed to high levels of spending by private Russian buyers, the latest auctions in this sector once again produced some eye-catching prices for particular lots.

A pair of 2ft 3in (71cm) high Elkington & Co cloisonné vases with ornate ormolu mounts will be offered on December 13-14 by Cheshire auctioneers Adam Partridge.

Fellows of Birmingham will include paintings from the studio of portraitist Howard James Morgan (b.1949) in their next sale on December 11.

A gold sword that belonged to the bodyguard of Empress Catherine II of Russia is estimated at £40,000-60,000 in Thomas Del Mar’s December 5 Antique Arms, Armour and Militaria sale in West Kensington, London.

This Nathaniel Mills presentation snuff box was given to Isambard K. Brunel and will be included in Jones & Jacob’s sale on December 5 in Watlington, Oxfordshire.

A pair of Queen Victoria’s silk black stockings complete with royal monograms is up for sale at Holloway’s of Banbury on December 4.

‘Peculiar’ and ‘eerie’ seem the best words to describe the works of Algernon Newton (1880-1968).

Mallett are about to celebrate their first Christmas in their lavish new home, Ely House in Dover Street, Mayfair, where they moved earlier this year when the rents and rates of nearby Bond Street became too much.

A gilt christening cup given by Lawrence of Arabia to the son of the real-life Peter Pan is to be sold at Sworders on December 4.

If you walk down London’s King’s Road for long enough, until you have exhausted all of the high-street chains that now proliferate, you reach the ever so slightly grittier World’s End and the little enclave that is Langton Street.