Berkshire

American customers are reappearing and dealers are hoping for a jubilee trade bounce

When the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was liberated on April 15, 1945, a party of British Red Cross nurses and doctors stayed and tended those they could help back to health.

It was supposedly as a result of a bet whether it was possible to make a camera that could fit into a cigarette packet that Noel Pemberton Billing (1881-1948) began work on a miniature, collapsible camera that would accept 35mm film.

The Fine Photographica sale at Flints in Thatcham, Berkshire, on April 23 includes this Ansco Photo Vanity 'spy' camera, estimated at £800-1200.

An example of 17th century hollowware appeared for sale at Dawsons (23% buyer’s premium) in Maidenhead earlier this year.

Dreweatts offered this market-fresh Henry Moore (1898-1986) figure group, 'Mother and Child', on March 16.

The collecting history of English silver spoons spans well over a century.

With the discovery of the intact tomb of Tutankhamun in 1923, an Egyptian revival swept through the decorative arts. Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels were among the first to design jewels that mixed Egyptian motifs with the geometry and bold colours of the Art Deco era. But other French, British and US ateliers soon followed.

Optimism among fair organisers remains high. David Steel who, as Tree of Ages Antiques runs an antiques fair in Charlwood, Surrey, is launching a new event.

Described as being a little fragile but otherwise good, this Victorian transformation game was drawn on both sides of a single sheet of cut and folded paper.

Dawsons Auctioneers is relocating to a larger new premises and plans to hold all its sales as live online-only without room bidding.

François Nicole (b.1766), the Geneva-based pioneer of the key-wind musical box, is thought to have made around 440 boxes during his working life, but only around 60 are known today.

This large-scale model of a late 19th century Australian stamp mill is signed for the Ivanhoe Gold Corporation Foundry.

Estimated at £200-300, this kaskara sold for £8200 at Dawsons (23% buyer’s premium) in Maidenhead on October 28.

Small bronzes form part of a group of sculptures underlining the market demand at regional salerooms.

Dawsons of Maidenhead holds an Asian sale on November 4 where this damaged 18in (46cm) famille verte yen-yen vase is guided at £200-300.

A drawing from Giovanni Battista Tiepolo’s (1696-1770) Punchinello series is among the highlights of the contents of Weston Hall in Northamptonshire.

His daring organic sculptural designs re-energised the British jewellery scene in post-war Britain, now Andrew Grima’s (1921-2007) creations are leading the revival of ‘60s and ‘70s designer jewellery on the secondary market.