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THE work of the pioneering Victorian designer Christopher Dresser is soon to have a major public airing in an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum opening this September. In the meantime the rarest examples of his iconic designs continue to command high prices in the marketplace.

THE Financial Services Authority’s imminent regulation of insurance mediation activity should not present a burden for UK auctioneers and dealers says the managing director of a leading fine art insurance specialists.

A SMALL group of animal stirrup cups provided the high points at Christie’s South Kensington’s silver sale held on June 16 affirming the evergreen appeal of novelty and collectors items over more useful hollowares.

WITH London hosting Asia week, Olympia and Grosvenor House in June, there was always going to be a trade battle for a Chinese vase which proved the sleeper of Charterhouse's (15% buyer's premium) 870-lot May 21 auction.

THE Fan Museum in Greenwich, the world’s only museum entirely dedicated to the history of fans and the craft of fan-making, have acquired an important fan painted around 1889 by Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942).

SPEAKING after a combined-operation sale at Edinburgh on June 10-11 which offered jewellery, silver and furniture, Bonhams’ (17.5/10% buyer's premium) specialist Bruce Anderson said: “Ultimately trade buying underpins a sale so if the trade is finding business tricky this affects us.

AN auctioneer contemplating an old boxed set of wooden soldiers complete with faded instructions for war games could be forgiven for steering it towards the toy section, or even a specialist toy sale.

COMBINE the perennial appeal of the Fabergé name with the current demand for all things Russian and it has been no surprise to see soaring prices for pieces by this famous firm in recent seasons.

A FOUR-page, colour illustrated feature in the April 25 issue of The Sunday Times Magazine will have done nothing to harm the saleroom prospects of a collection of 13 love letters written in the period January 1881-June 1882 by the actress Lillie Langtry, “the adored pin-up whose affairs rocked Victorian Britain”, and on May 13 Cumbrian auctioneers Mitchells of Cockermouth sold the lot for £5000.

ONCE criticised for its sometimes curious aesthetics, William IV and Victorian furniture is today more likely to be maligned for its relatively poor performance as a ten-year investment. However, there are still aces out there that merit the chase – and one turned up at Bruton Knowles' (15% buyer's premium) on May 27.

LEADING the sale conducted by John Taylors (12% buyer’s premium) in Louth on June 1 was a marine barometer by Rodgerson & Co.

AS a follow-up to last week’s report on the Conan Doyle collection sold at King Street in May, I bring belated news of The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire.

PERIOD if possible, but, above all, practical – this seems to be the current code among furniture buyers in the experience of Amersham Auction Rooms (15% buyer's premium) over the past couple of years.

WITH giant sales every three weeks, Keys (10% buyer's premium) of Aylsham will cheerfully put two-figure lots under the hammer, but there were also a number of four-figure sellers to help swell the hammer total to £110,000 at the latest 1640-lot outing on June 2-3.

THE 19th century European Paintings sales at Sotheby’s are divided into a number of regionally-themed sections which are enjoying varying degrees of health. Although they continue to have their occasional moments, the formerly booming markets for Orientalist, German and Scandinavian pictures continue to be pale reflections of their former selves.

TWO very strong prices, one in Edinburgh and one in London have underlined the status of the Zeigler as the most fashionable of late 19th century carpets. And the £110,000 and £130,000 bid for Zeigler & Co. carpets at Lyon & Turnbull on March 31 (Antiques Trade Gazette 1636, April 24) and Sotheby’s on April 28 (Antiques Trade Gazette 1641, May 29) had one thing in common – both were made with cream grounds.

AN airheaded and insubstantial vice it might be, but plainly vanity has lasting appeal at auction, judging by the success of the coromandel veneered lady’s box, top right, and the gentleman’s hide toilet case, bottom right, offered at Amersham Auctions Rooms (15% buyer's premium) on June 6.

“A WONDERFUL morning and a dreadful afternoon,” was how auctioneer Elizabeth Pepper-Darling summed up Morphets' (15/10% buyer's premium) 640-lot June 10 sale which was in some ways a microcosm of the auction scene in general.

BACK in July 1984, Christie’s took £75,000 (£81,000 with premium) for Thomas Rowlandson’s (1756-1827) pièce de résistance watercolour of Box-lobby loungers.

THE Old Master trade loves a sleeper and at least two dealers were convinced they were on to a major discovery when a woefully under-catalogued “Painter standing beside a canvas depicting cupid, oil on canvas, 45 x 37.5in (1.14m x 95cm)” came under the hammer without any form of attribution or estimate at the Portsmouth, New Hampshire rooms of North East Auctions (15/10% buyer’s premium) on May 23.