As we approach a crunch vote on Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal, a no-deal result is still a possibility – so too the prospect of an extension to the Article 50 process beyond the March 29 deadline. As the selection of comments and advice from across the trade suggests, the art and antiques sector, like businesses up and down the country, is preparing for every eventuality.

The French auction system could be set for more reform with a draft bill recommending further change due to be launched later this month.

A trio of tickets issued by one of the UK’s first passenger railways sold for £1050 at a recent sale held by David Duggleby (21% buyer’s premium) in Scarborough.

The Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle was among the buyers when Tennants sold 13 quilts that belonged to Durham hill farmer Hannah Hauxwell (1926-2018) on February 9.

Precisely four months on from a flood inundating its saleroom, Carmarthen auction house Peter Francis (20% buyer’s premium) enjoyed a literal and metaphorical day in the sunshine on February 13.

Following the fall of Louis-Philippe in the 1848 revolution, the French royal sculptor Henri Joseph Francois, Baron de Triqueti (1804-74) was obliged to cast his net further afield for new patrons.

An 18th century pocket watch by Gibraltarian goldsmith Henry Cowper emerged for sale at Rowley’s auction house in Ely. It belonged to a Lincolnshire private collector who bought it over 50 years ago for £1 from a former resident of the Rock.

A monumental cloisonné vase – the previously missing element to a triptych made for the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago – sold for $110,000 (£85,000) in California.

The sale of two great collections at auction – one in London, the other in New York – has highlighted the ebbs and flows of the market for early British pottery and furniture.

Two fine examples of Meiji period cloisonné brought similar multi-estimate sums at regional auctions earlier this month.