UK

BORN a wealthy European aristocrat and court painter to a Turkish Sultan, the Maltese count Vittorio Amadeo Preziosi (1816-1882) was nevertheless a familiar figure among the back streets of Istanbul.

LEADING London art dealer Richard Green is in the process of demolishing his Old Masters gallery at 33 New Bond Street, prior to completely rebuilding a new five-storey gallery.

SCOTTISH auctioneers Loves Auction Rooms of Perth appear to have ceased trading, leaving vendors unpaid.

THIS diminutive table seen at Cambridge auctioneers Cheffins on the second day of their September 23-24 sale was a miniature version of the famous circular expanding dining table designed by Robert Jupe of Welbeck Street, London.

IT was the talk of the week in the print and broadcast media. The Staffordshire Hoard is being billed as the biggest collection found in England and the most important since the celebrated Sutton Hoo discovery of 1939.

A DETAILED examination of Laura Knight's 1915 oil Carnaval by Christie's specialist Tom Rooth revealed the edge of not one but two stretched canvases.

A THOMAS Tompion table clock was among the items stolen in a raid on a Cumbrian stately home on Saturday, September 19.

THE new auction season kicked off in earnest in New York with one of the strongest market sectors – Asian works of art.

BONHAMS have set up a new department devoted to sales of photography joining Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Bloomsbury Auctions in mounting specialist stand-alone sales in London in this field.

WHEN a large house in Cheshire was decommissioned by the army after World War Two, it was sold to a family along with its contents. Included in the sale price was this watercolour, pen and ink image of King Olaf by the Danish illustrator Kay Rasmus Nielsen (1886-1957) which was thought at the time to be a print.

IT all seemed done and dusted as the galleries were cleared and the landlords put To Let signs in the front window. But now it appears there may be life in the Partridge name yet, as an unnamed consortium announced last week that it had acquired the brand.

THE first tangible evidence of the new Dreweatt-Bloomsbury alliance will be the two-day preview at Bloomsbury's rooms in Maddox Street for Puritan Values, Designers and Makers 1850-1950, the 400-lot auction of the Anthony Geering collection.

THE Gloucester Antique Centre has appointed a new general manager.

Leading regional auctioneers Dreweatts have formed a strategic alliance with London antiquarian book specialists Bloomsbury Auctions.

KNUTSFORD, Cheshire auctioneers Frank Marshall sold this remarkable pair of Chelsea Blue Triangle period sauceboats c.1745-49 for a house record £41,000 on September 8.

THE removal men descended on New Bond Street last week to begin the task of clearing out the stock at Partridge. By the morning of Friday, September 4, the biggest object left in the window was a large roll of bubblewrap being used to pack up the antiques for loading onto several lorries parked along the street.

BRINGING bidding from different parts of the world to Mallams latest sale in Oxford, this Chinese jade censer went spectacularly over its £2000-3000 estimate on August 26.

According to legend, during the English Civil War, a Royalist descendant of Sir Christopher Harris (c.1553-1625) of Radford, Devon, hid the family silver in a cave before fleeing, fearing for his life.

THIS German clockwork tinplate limousine made a surprise £38,000 at Tennants of Leyburn at their latest toy sale.

POLICE are on the look out for two people following the theft of a pair of 19th century Coalport vases from an antiques centre in Shropshire.