Front Page and News

More indoor antiques and collectables fairs have been called off as coronavirus cases rise again and restrictions increase.

Separated for many years, portraits of two brothers by WBE Ranken (1881-1941) came up at auction at different London salerooms last week. The fact that they emerged on the market simultaneously was seemingly pure coincidence.

A newly-discovered work by François Desportes (1661- 1743) sold for a sensational €1.65m (£1.5m) at auction in Bordeaux.

The highlight of last week’s Asian art series in New York was this remarkable 14in (35cm) high Warring States period (475-221BC) bronze sacrificial wine vessel or 'fang hu'.

Edward Bawden (1903-89) was one of a number of artists invited to submit designs ahead of Britain’s changeover to decimal coinage. Designs were invited for six coins: the 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p and 50p pieces.

Rare books valued at more than £2.5m that were stolen from a London warehouse in 2017 have been recovered in Romania.

A refund plan for exhibitors at the planned Winter Art & Antiques Fair Olympia has been announced by organisers should government restrictions make it impossible to run.

Concerns have been raised that Portobello Road antiques shops could be under threat under new English planning laws that will make it easier to change the use of a retail building.

The highlight of a two-day sale of works from White Oaks, a prominent Atlanta mansion, was this portrait of Anglo-Irish society hostess Oonagh Guinness by Philip de László (1869-1937).

A celebrated Una and the Lion proof set minted in the first year of Queen Victoria’s reign returns to auction next month.

Choice specimens of the rarest English coins are reaching new financial territory.

An English translation of a Dutch 16th century sea atlas was among the standout sales at the recent online edition of Firsts: London’s Rare Book Fair.

A Military Cross group awarded to a soldier who carried a fallen comrade through fierce gunfire in Iraq sold at £36,000 (plus 20% buyer ’s premium) in Macclesfield on September 11.

When, following the October Revolution of 1917, the Bolshevik government took control of the Imperial Porcelain Factory, large quantities of glazed but unpainted white hard-paste porcelain plates, cups and saucers remained at the site.

Aston’s Auctioneers & Valuers in Dudley is to close and its final sale – a sci-fi toy collection – will be held next month.

This 4in (10cm) silver snuff box offered for sale at Veilinghuis de Jager in Goes, Zeeland was the subject of a learned article in the January-February Ghendtsche Tydingen, the magazine of the Ghent history society.

A government consultation on the minutiae of elements of the Ivory Act is required prior to the implementing of the new law.

The oldest surviving FA Cup, presented to the winning teams between 1896 and 1910, is to be offered with an estimate of £700,000-900,000 at Bonhams this month.