UK

In major league baseball, the favourite sport of the worldÕs richest nation, there is an annual tradition of honouring the player in the league who has contributed most to the success of their team. It is known as the Most Valuable Player Award or the M.V.P.

FOOTBALL may be known as The Beautiful Game, but as anyone who supports a Scottish non-league team will tell you, it can sometimes seem more like viewing a scrum than watching a spectacle of sublime flair and silky skill.

Phillips de Pury & Company will raise the curtain on their new London headquarters with a Contemporary Art and Design Art sale on October 14.

First there was Phillips Reunited, now there is the Bonhams Chelsea Reunion.

THE spectacular and enigmatic spiralling tooth that grows from the upper jaw of the male monodon monoceros, long gave credence to the existence of the unicorn.

The formal state carriage from the family of the Marquess of Londonderry scheduled to be sold by Thimbleby & Shorland on September 6 has been withdrawn from sale by the vendor.

Warwick University have validated a new MA in the History and Business of Art and Collecting offered by The Institut d’Études Supérieures des Arts (IESA) in Paris and run in partnership with the Wallace Collection.

This Regency figured and gilded rosewood writing table with gilt brass mounts attributed to the Royal furniture-makers Morel and Hughes and once owned by former Prime Minister Earl Grey (1764-1845), has become the newest attraction on show at Temple Newsam House, Leeds.

A vast photographic postcard archive depicting Devon in the first half of the 20th century has emerged in Nottinghamshire.

A long-standing member of both the British Antique Dealers’ Association and the vetting committee at the Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair, the late Polly de Courcy-Ireland, who died last year, was without doubt one of the country’s leading authorities on treen. First opened in 1972, her shop in Alresford, Hampshire was a favourite with collectors for over 30 years.

"They kept their resolution longer than I expected, keeping us in action from 7 in the morning till [?] in the afternoon and to carry the scene on in a military manner they came down upon us, sounding the charge and their army colours flying, and in this manner continued till they were beaten to atoms. "

IT is almost 10 years since the noted Wiltshire glass dealers Delomosne last held an exhibition with accompanying handbook, and that was the collection of cordial glasses belonging to the late John Towse.

In the family of the Marquess of Londonderry since it was built sometime in the latter quarter of the 19th century, this formal state carriage is deemed the finest to appear at auction for a generation.

On September 10, Litts, the UK’s largest retailer of sporting guns, is holding its inaugural auction of stock.

Thieves broke into Goldsworth Books & Prints some time between 5pm on Saturday and 9am on Sunday July 29-30, stealing books, maps and prints to the value of over £30,000.

CLARION Arts, the owners and organisers of the three annual Olympia fairs in West London, have reaffirmed their commitment to the Spring Olympia and appointed a dedicated show manager for that troubled event.

This recently discovered oil landscape by Joseph Wright of Derby (1734–97) will be offered for sale by Richard Winterton at Hilliards Cross, Lichfield on August 31.

The third reunion of former staff of Phillips auctioneers will take place on Tuesday September 12 at the London Rowing Club, Embankment, Putney from 6pm.

It’s not difficult to see how Dunhill ‘fish tank’ lighters got their name. Not only do these 1950s perspex and electroplated lighters resemble miniature aquariums, but most were decorated with aquatic subjects.

In June 1941 an 18-year-old apprentice cabinetmaker, L.F. Gillet of Stratford-on-Avon, won first prize in the prestigious Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers annual competition. The prize was a dovetailed steel and rosewood rebating mitre the ASW had specially commissioned from the Norris factory.