2019

Letters from Princess Diana written in the late 1980s and early 90s to a leading fashion magazine editor are coming to auction in New York.

The Cotswold Art & Antique Dealers’ Association fair switched its 2019 slot at Blenheim Palace from April to February and ATG went along on the final day to see the results.

A 30-lot sale of furniture from an apartment designed in 1951 by the celebrated and multi-talented Italian architect and designer Gio Ponti is to go under the hammer on March 21 in London.

With estimates from £500-25,000, here are five previews from upcoming sales this week.

The BBC’s Antiques Roadshow has released the dates and locations for the recording of its programmes in the summer of 2019.

Reflections on the global art market, auctioneers in retirement and toy sales all feature in our weekly roundup of quotes from around the art and antiques trade.

A fine copy of the very first issue of the Beano has sold at auction for £8700. Beano Comic No 1 from July 1938 debuted characters such as Big Eggo, Morgyn the Mighty, Contrary Mary and the long-running favourite Lord Snooty and his Pals.

To celebrate International Women’s Day, ATG brings you its choice of women who centuries ago, were trailblazers for the female artists who flourished amid the greater freedoms of the 20th century.

The UK’s art market reclaimed its second position in the global league table as China’s rapid growth slowed during 2018.

Ninety-two first edition copies of Beatrix Potter’s 1907 ‘The Tale of the Faithful Dove’ go under the hammer in Surrey this month.

Norfolk sisters Catherine and Shelley-Anne Wilford have launched Beeston Auction House after the retirement of the owners of Townsend Auction Galleries.

ATG’s selection of hammer highlights over the past week include a Henry VIII apostle spoon making ten times estimate at an auction in Leicestershire, and a huge Minton majolica urn bringing similar levels of competition in Ireland.

The most popular stories on this website over the last week included news of a painting found in a French attic believed to be by Caravaggio and now due to be auctioned with a valuation of over £100m, as well as Bonhams raising its buyer’s premium to a level beyond Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips.

A large David Hockney (b.1937) double portrait led Christie’s latest evening sale of post-war and contemporary art in London.

Today marks World Book Day, and while the occasion is aimed at young people, it could also be a chance for rare book collectors to take stock of their libraries and investigate some top lots in store at future auctions.

An update on recent appointments in the world of art and antiques.

Two collections of Clarice Cliff pottery are coming up for sale in Salisbury, from typical wares to the very rare. ATG talks to Woolley & Wallis specialist Michael Jeffery about six lots that reflect the evolution of the pioneering designer’s output

It was a case of little and large at Sotheby’s last night as an enormous work by Jenny Saville (b.1970) and a small portrait by Lucian Freud both sold at the firm’s latest Contemporary art evening sale in London.

A simple toy steam locomotive left a vendor chuffed as it made a hammer price 115 times its top estimate.

A Dehua blanc de chine figure of Guanyin sold for a surprise £39,000 – some 130 times the top estimate - at Bellmans in Wisborough Green, West Sussex last month.