2014

A superb combination of history, condition and rarity came together as a figurehead from a Brazilian slavers’ ship sold at Essex saleroom Sworders for ten times the low estimate at £50,000.

Personal effects of Sir Winston Churchill, including the morocco dispatch box pictured here, were among the highlights of Sotheby’s highly publicised estate sale of his youngest child, the late Mary Soames.

Sherborne auctioneers Charterhouse are on a roll with Republican period (1911-49) porcelain.

More than half the receipts from Christie’s inaugural Exceptional sale in New York came from a single lot. And it was one with quite a history.

Appearing at a recent sale held by Toovey’s of Washington, West Sussex, this Imperial Qianlong famille rose and calligraphic vase sold for a house-record £520,000.

Christie’s have announced two new appointments at the top of the company.

“It is a somewhat incoherent narrative, which, however, gives Lon Chaney an opportunity to turn up in an uncanny disguise and also to manifest his powers as Scotland Yard’s expert hypnotist. You are therefore treated to close-ups of Mr Chaney’s rolling orbs, which, fortunately, do not exert their influence on the audience.”

Lawyer ANDREW BANKS reviews three recent CITES cases and considers what we might learn from them...

The burden of proof in CITES court cases should now switch from the defence to the prosecution, says a lawyer who has just won an important victory on the matter.

One of the best-loved of all of E.H. Shepard’s illustrations to the famous A.A. Milne books has set a saleroom record after selling for £260,000.

Dreweatts & Bloomsbury have announced two new alliances as they reshape the wider business as part of the Stanley Gibbons Group.

The stock of the Austrian-born British studio potter Lucie Rie (1902-95) continues to rise in the saleroom.

COMMENT: ATG Editor Ivan Macquisten argues that the top end of the art market needs a reality check if it wants to remain in control of its own destiny

Guidance issued this month by the authorities charged with implementing New York’s latest ivory laws has offered a few crumbs of comfort to art dealers and owners of antique ivory works of art.

One of the greatest ‘barn finds’ ever has uncovered 60 classic cars – just one of which is a rare Ferraris valued at several million pounds – in outbuildings in the west of France.

A series of deals to safeguard the future of the Wedgwood Collection and ensure it will continue to be displayed in the Potteries have now been completed.

The French National Antique Dealers’ Association (Syndicat National des Antiquaires), organisers of the long-running Paris ‘Biennale des Antiquaires’, have decided to mount an additional new annual fair for the French capital – the first to be held next spring.

Pre-war delivery vans advertising commercial brand names have long acquired trophy status in the Dinky toy market.

It was, say Timeline Auctions, “probably the most important medieval seal to come to market” and certainly the most important object the firm had ever offered for sale, according to CEO Brett Hammond.

Christie’s chief executive Steven Murphy has unexpectedly quit his post, saying he has completed the job he set out to do when appointed in 2010.