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A gentleman retires to his designated smoker’s chair, picks up his meerschaum pipe and Dunhill lighter and puffs away contentedly by his hearth… a vanished scenario in the UK today but recreated in the antiques world in these three items from December auctions.

Used as the catalogue cover design for an Illustration Art sale held by Swann (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) of New York was the George Lepape watercolour, ‘Après la Tempeste’ shown below.

The rising popularity of the tribal art collecting scene is tempting auction houses to take steps in that direction.

Not only is industrious Derbyshire auction house Hansons about to launch its new saleroom down south, but it is also starting a new sale format building on the popular tribal art collecting scene.

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period January 4-10, 2018. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

He was among the most prolific and longest serving official war artists of the Second World War, yet Anthony Gross (1905-84) remains an obscure name among 20th century British talents.

Auctioneering is a fiercely competitive business, on the face of it. Behind the scenes, however, there are many examples of salerooms helping each other – from sharing business experiences to providing specialist counsel on objects.

More than £730,000 worth of pictures changed hands at Edinburgh saleroom Lyon & Turnbull’s (25/20% buyer’s premium) recent sale of Scottish art.

New year brings a new sales calendar at Halls of Shrewsbury, not least launching a dedicated Asian art auction.

A painting by Rex Whistler (1905-44) which was believed to be the last he painted before he was killed during the Second World War sold at Chiswick Auctions (25/12% buyer’s premium) in London.

Algernon Newton (1880-1968) is one of those British artists whose pictures went unnoticed for many years.

A retrospective of William Tillyer (b.1938) running at Bernard Jacobson this month is only the first in a series of events planned relating to the British artist at the Duke Street gallery this year.

Whatever chaos faces hundreds of thousands of commuters on the railways as we enter the New Year, the better-ordered world of model trains steams on to continued success.

A fine Pushkin collection, running to a dozen lots in all, was a major attraction in the Russian section of at a Christie’s (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) sale.

Dealers are often on the move. Here, ATG takes another look at some of the dealers that have recently taken up new premises (or are planning to do so) around the UK and beyond. They range from a new London location for a long-standing jewellery firm to Drew Pritchard opening a shop in his local town.

It was around this time of year when wealthy skiers with chalets to decorate would dial in from the slopes of the world’s most prestigious resorts to take part in Christie’s South Kensington’s annual Ski Sale.

MADAM – This week I listened in utter disbelief as actress and wildlife campaigner Virginia McKenna spoke on Radio 4’s Today programme calling for the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow to no longer show any items which contain ivory elements.

MADAM – It is not clear from all the correspondence and articles in ATG as to whether the ivory ban will be limited to elephant and marine ivory and, if so, leaving one free to trade in items made from mammoth, warthog and hippo ivory.