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On the morning of March 28, 1941 at about 11.30am, 59-year-old novelist Virginia Woolf put on her thick fur coat, picked up the faux bamboo walking stick illustrated above and left her farmhouse in Rodmell, Sussex.

A ROYAL remarriage will take place at Parham House in Sussex at the end of this month between King Philip IV of Spain and Elizabeth of France.

DENMARK: Given the continuing vogue for Scandinavian interiors, it comes as no surprise that the first modern art and design auction to be held by Danish auctioneers Bruun Rasmussen (25% buyer’s premium including VAT) in Århus last month on February 12, met with very favourable results.

A series of strong bids brought a total of £51,900 for a Chelsea fable painted part-tea service at Lawrence’s of Crewkerne on March 14.

Artists with any kind of American connection almost invariably attract an extra level of interest when their work comes up for sale at a UK provincial saleroom. This was certainly the case when this 2ft 53/4in by 223/4in (75 x 57cm) genre canvas, right, by John Thomas Peele (1822-1897) came up for sale at the Heathfield, East Sussex rooms of Watsons (10% buyer’s premium) on March 7.

WILLIAM Wood’s New Englands Prospect..., first published in London in 1634, was intended to “enrich the knowledge of the mind-travelling Reader, or benefit the future Voyager”.

NOTED St. James’s Asian specialists Rossi and Rossi leave their Jermyn Street showrooms for New York this month for an exciting show which runs until March 26 at the galleries of Dickinson Roundell, 19 East 66th Street.

Collectors looking for glamour in the north-eastern seaside town of Scarborough almost found it when they saw that the possessions of Josephine Baker were to be sold by local auctioneer David Duggleby.

THE smaller items among the quality furniture, clock and collectable entries proved the most commercial lots at this 846-lot Herefordshire auction at Brightwells on 6 and 7 February.

THE move towards holding specialist sales among provincial auctioneers has been one of the success stories recent years and one that is paying dividends for Salisbury’s Woolley & Wallis in one of the most arcane worlds – that of carpets and textiles.

Shortly before her execution at Fotheringay Castle in 1587, Mary Queen of Scots gave this portrait ring, right, to her lady in waiting, Mary Strickland, as a keepsake. This was the story told to Devon auctioneer Robin Fenner by the vendor, whose late mother was the last of the Boynton Stricklands.

Decorative arts are especially popular in this part of the West Country, where New Age culture and the wealth of new technology has created a sympathetic market for antiques in general and the arts and crafts in particular.

FEARS that the UK arm of online sales provider icollector have gone bust are not founded, the company’s UK spokesman Mark Hill has reassured Antiques Trade Gazette.

CHRISTIE’S led worldwide auction sales in 2001, with a total of £1.242bn compared to Sotheby’s £1.14bn for the same period.

Bonhams increased the buyer’s premium on their lower price tier for purchases this month. From March 1 a new rate applies of 17.5 per cent (plus VAT) on the first £30,000 and 10 per cent thereafter.

A DOSSIER of evidence put together by the Antiques Trade Gazette over several years of investigation has led to the directors of an Essex freight firm being banned from running limited companies.

Though not so credited, this coloured lithograph, Grand Prix de l’A.C.F. 1913 (Motocyclettes) has a very Gamy/Montaut look about it. In the literature section of a motoring sale held by Bonhams at the RAF Museum, Hendon, on February 25, it sold at £250.

THE Roberts Holy Land offered in the 120-lot book section of this Kent sale at Mervyn Carey on 20 February, a six-vol. 1855 quarto edition, had been kept in a barn and had virtually disintegrated over the years.

Christie’s (20.93/11.96% buyer’s premium) staged their first Automobile sale in Paris on February 12 at the Rétromobile vintage car show, which attracts 100,000 visitors every year.

BETTER known for its polo club than its fine art, Cowdray Park in Midhurst, Sussex nevertheless provided Hampshire auctioneers Jacobs & Hunt with some talking points among a quantity of the “surplus to requirements” chattels the owners of the country pile had decided to get rid of.