UK

THE organisers of The Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair have announced that they have chosen the 75th anniversary to take the event in a new direction. New disciplines brought in by a raft of new dealers will help broaden the appeal for today's collectors, says the fair's director Alison Vaissiere.

AFTER the resignation of the speaker of the House of Commons Michael Martin last week, the subject of this cartoon of the 1830s could hardy have been more topical.

THE petition to persuade the Government to ease business rates in support of the art and antiques industry is gathering momentum.

THIS pair of Irish George III mahogany and brass-bound peat buckets drew multiple bidders at Mellors & Kirk's two-day auction in Nottingham on April 30-May 1.

On May 14, Malvern auctioneer Philip Serrell will sell this 3.5oz silver floral engraved snuffbox marked for Nathaniel Mills, Birmingham 1836.

A YEAR that marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species has already produced several television and radio programmes on Darwin, and it was always to be expected that his saleroom profile might be high in 2009.

HE had received only a basic education and spoke only Dutch, but Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) is today recognised as the greatest of the pioneering microscopists of the 17th century.

A HOARD of James I gold unites, found in the wall of an Oxfordshire cellar 30 years ago, is expected to sell for £50,000 at London specialist auctioneers Morton & Eden on June 9-10.

ANTIQUES delivery specialist Mail Boxes Etc. have taken on a logistical challenge and a half, having agreed to handle the shipping for the forthcoming Shambles Museum sale.

Gary Don Auctioneers of Leeds was the first subject of Keep It In The Family, a new series of four documentaries that follows a different family business with a succession dilemma each week.

DEALERS at Antiquarius have been left looking for a new home after the final death knells were sounded for the King’s Road antiques centre last week.

CHRISTIE’S have confirmed that their Antiquities department at South Kensington will continue as before, with sales in April and October.

LONDON Sculpture Week, which was scheduled for June 12 to 19, has been suspended due to lack of sponsorship.

POLICE have asked for information about a theft that took place at Cavendish Antiques and Interiors in Suffolk in the early hours of April 11.

DREWEATTS will sell the stock of Chevertons at the Donnington Priory salerooms on May 12.

THERE was high drama at the Mackworth Hotel, Derbyshire on April 15 when a creamware teapot and cover carrying a telling political message sold for £69,000.

KENSINGTON and Chelsea council are holding a public planning meeting on Tuesday to consider the application to turn the King’s Road antiques centre Antiquarius into a branch of the American clothing chain Anthropologie.

HENRY Sandon, one of the best-known figures in the British antiques world, has called on the UK government to provide more support for the industry.

COTSWOLDS specialist in sporting antiques Manfred Schotten can usually be relied upon to turn up some quirky, offbeat but interesting items, and drawing on the wide world of sport and leisure pursuits he has plenty of scope.

A BANKRUPT Suffolk antiques dealer who went on the run to Bulgaria after swindling creditors in a £1.9m fraud has been jailed for ten years.