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The buyer of a letter purportedly written by Captain Thomas Hardy from HMS Victory six days after the Battle of Trafalgar has belatedly received a full refund after it proved to be a facsimile of a letter in a public collection.

Seven telephone lines and several bidders in the room competed for this venerable folding gaming board at the Diss Auction Rooms of Thos. Wm. Gaze & Son on May 21.

SIMON Hope of Hatton-based H&H Classic Auctions is to ride the full length of the Pennine Trail for charity.

AMONG the mementos of the martial glory of her ancestor Hamiltons which Hope Hamilton brought as a bride to Pallinsburn from her Sundrum Castle home were four 18th century bronze carronades, one shown right...

ONE of the most active scam guide firms, who con the antiques trade into taking out unwanted advertising, are on the march again, despite two court rulings against them.

PERHAPS the rarest of all Beswick’s ouput is the Spirit of Whitfield.

LAPADA have appointed Rebecca Hossack of London’s Rebecca Hossack Gallery (RHG) as a director. The Australian-born dealer in Contemporary pictures, sculpture, jewellery and decorative arts is the first Contemporary specialist to join the association’s board.

The specialist British sale held by Spink (15% buyer’s premium) on May 5 consisted exclusively of the collection formed by Samuel King.

Christie’s New York are selling the Bibliotheca Bibliographica Breslaueriana in three portions.

Ealing Council are appealing for information on the theft of 16 pieces of Martin Brothers pottery from Southall Library in the early hours of Monday, May 23.

RACEHORSE trainers may be used to a photo finish but a battle between two famous breeders went right to the wire on May 17 when Graham Budd (17.5% buyer’s premium) in association with Sotheby’s Olympia offered a selection of chattels from Ascot Racecourse.

AMONG the great grails of Maling collecting are the so-called Urbino style vases: 16in (41cm) high exhibition pieces c.1945 decorated in relief with a celebrated moment from classical mythology by Lucien Boullemeir to a design by Norman Carling. The scene shows Perseus holding aloft the Medusa’s head to petrify the sea monster and save the beautiful Andromeda, who is chained to the rocky shore.

A WEEK is a long time in politics, but nowadays the same can be said of sport. As soon as we read about a premiership player confirming his commitment to one club, the next day we see him signing for Chelsea.

Following the decision of Thames Valley estate agents Simmons and Son to concentrate upon their core business, a new firm of fine art auctioneers and valuers has been established in Watlington.

An English judge has issued a stern warning to those who knowingly sell fake merchandise on eBay, handing a suspended prison sentence to a woman who sold a counterfeit collectable over the auction website for almost £1000.

The rainbow plate seen above right comes from an 1814 first issue* of David Cox’s Treatise on landscape Painting and Effect in Watercolours, an oblong folio work that incorporates a hand-coloured aquatint frontispiece and 31 plates (15 coloured, 15 in sepia) as well as 24 soft ground etchings.

Christie’s South Kensington (20/12% buyer’s premium) : Art Nouveau and Art DecoThis two-day, all-Continental offering really was a sale of two halves.

THE reputation established by Gardiner Houlgate over the last ten years for Clarice Cliff pottery has resulted in two specialist sales each year of around 200 lots.

Decorative Arts may be a volatile market but it follows a patternDECORATIVE ARTS by Anne Crane

London antique dealers Mallett’s of New Bond Street have been awarded €111,533 (£80,000) by the Irish High Court after suing an Irish dealer over a stolen bureau bookcase.