Events and conferences

THIS year's RICS conference will be in Cambridge from Friday to Sunday, September 15-17. More details to follow, but block out the dates in your diaries now.

THIS summer's Kensington Church Street Open Evening on June 29 proved a notable success for the many visitors who enjoyed the hospitality and company of the street's many dealers.

A magnificent Charles II silver fluted fruit sideboard dish saved from export in 2005 is now on display at the Royal College of Physicians. It will be displayed alongside their existing collection of memorabilia relating to Sir Francis Prujean, the President of the Royal College of Physicians (1650-1654) whose life-saving cures were recorded in Pepys’ diaries.

HENRY Sandon, the acknowledged leading authority on Worcester porcelain, has been awarded the Freedom of the City of London. The ceremony took place at the Guildhall on February 28, where Mr Sandon then gave the annual Ravenscroft lecture at Glaziers Hall SE1, an event staged by the Glass-Sellers’ Company.

The Victoria & Albert Museum’s sculpture collection will be redisplayed this spring in the new Dorothy and Michael Hintze Galleries.

Next month the Royal Observatory, Greenwich will unveil four new galleries designed to tell the story of precision timekeeping.

The following prizes have been awarded to students on the BA(Hons) Fine Art Valuation course at Southampton Solent University.

AN innovative device for securing paintings has won wide recognition at a prestigious European scientific and engineering event.

The emerging class of wealthy Chinese buyers continues to boost the top-end of the art and antiques market in the Far East. So it wasn’t a huge surprise that Sotheby’s set a house record in this autumn’s Hong Kong series, taking HK$850.9m (£61.7m) from seven sales.

There will be a rare chance to glimpse some of the long unseen areas of Beijing’s Forbidden City on November 28, when Henry Tzu Ng of the World Monuments Fund will deliver a lecture at the Royal Academy in conjunction with their forthcoming exhibition – China: The Three Emperors, 1662-1795.

A TRAVELLING exhibition is to be organised for the unique Cassel silver collection thanks to major grants from the Lottery and the National Art Collections Fund (Art Fund).

Scottish auctioneer Paul Roberts has been awarded a coveted business honour in recognition of his outstanding personal achievement in business.

IT was a family occasion on Friday June 9 at Bonhams when chairman Robert Brooks invited his father Bill to unveil a plaque for the lecture theatre in their Bond Street HQ in front of a small gathering of family members and senior staff from the auction house.

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

AT this year’s CINOA General Assembly, held in New York from May 12 to 14, delegates representing dealers associations from more than 20 countries discussed two political areas which they felt threatened the international art market.

NEW York’s Asian celebrations in late March and the first week of April always galvanise the international trade, attracting to the city collectors, curators and dealers from all over the world.

NEW York’s Asia Week wrapped up towards the end of last week and fair exhibitors and dealers hosting Manhattan selling shows are collating just how successful the enterprise proved.

LAW Fine Art could hardly have timed their latest sale better: a collection of Cotswolds Arts and Crafts with primary provenance by leading practitioners Barnsley, Gimson and Lethaby to be sold on April 5.

WHILE Maastricht was, in the main, a showcase of Western art, the mood for all things Asian goes from strength to strength in New York and British experts are making the most of it.

A newly-discovered Coalport design book will be among the highlights of Geoffrey Godden’s Special Connoisseurs Meeting on March 29-31.