UK

CECIL Court, the pedestrian thoroughfare in the West End of London that is home to around 20 antiquarian book dealers, has become the focus of a wider political debate on business rates.

IN a bid to boost pre-Christmas trade at Friday's Bermondsey Antiques Market, Southwark Council have waived the usual stand charge of £30 and only the £10 stall rental charge for a 9 x 3ft stall will apply. This offer applies for November 20 only.

JUST as Asian Art in London got underway, a surprise regional highlight emerged in Devon. A pair of 18th century Chinese Export pheasants were consigned for sale at Plymouth Auction Rooms by a local vendor, whose family had owned the birds for at least three generations.

DUDLEY Council are to scrap plans to close the Broadfield House Glass Museum and relocate the renowned glass collections to the nearby Cone site.

Politically correct it is not, but the ‘Negro Cricketer’ pattern, produced for just one year in 1907, certainly ranks among the rarest and most desirable of Royal Doulton series wares.

FOLLOWING on from his magnum opus on the Welsh dresser, Carmarthenshire dealer Richard Bebb has turned his attention to the history of another quintessentially Welsh form, the ceremonial bardic chairs traditionally awarded to the winning poets at an Eisteddfod.

ESTIMATED at £800-1200, this Victorian silver ewer modelled as a kangaroo sold for £24,000 at Chorley's of Prinknash Abbey, Gloucestershire on October 22 to a London dealer on the telephone who saw off competition from Australia and France.

ROYAL Mail have lost another court case over their promise to cover losses under their special delivery services, and face further legal action. Yet they will still not change the terms and conditions that landed them in court.

GUERNSEY auctioneers Martel Maides look set to become the latest UK regional firm to benefit from the rise and rise of Chinese mark and period porcelain after three Yongzheng period (1723-1735) famille rose bowls were consigned by a Channel Islands family who have owned them for at least 80 years.

THE next couple of months bring the final chance to sign up to the petition calling on the government to give better support to the art and antiques industry.

IF you’re looking for a painting that sums up the problems suffered by the contemporary art market over the last year, then this work by Peter Doig (b.1959) is a pretty good candidate.

A massive Union Flag that flew from one of the ships at the battle of Trafalagar has sold at auction for £320,000.

THE original drawings that Edward Lear made for his 1846 A Book of Nonsense are now rare, and those that exist are for the most part held in institutional collections.

THE first salvos in the battle between the showground fairs giants saw up to 4000 exhibitors head to Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire earlier this month.

THE organisers of Masterpiece, one of the hopefuls in the race to fill the gap left by the Grosvenor House fair, hope to have their venue settled by the end of the year.

THE London art trade has welcomed the news that the Acquisitions, Export and Loans Unit’s (AELU) move to Birmingham has been delayed by three months.

TO visit Vectis Auctions, the toy specialists based near Stockton-on-Tees with annual sales of £5m, is to catch a glimpse of the auction business as it might be in the future.

AMONG the more run-of-the-mill furnishings that constitute the bulk of the popular Interiors sales at Christie’s South Kensington, there are often a handful of more quirky items.

ATG correspondent SIMON HEWITT gains exclusive access to the evidence used to unveil what the world's leading scholars say is the first major Leonardo Da Vinci find for 100 years.

LONDON-based international fair organisers Brian and Anna Haughton have announced that they will launch a new fair in London next summer, taking advantage of the opportunity offered by the demise of Grosvenor House.