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BRAFA Art Fair, Brussels’ major international art and antiques show, is one of the earliest events in the European fairs calendar.

A round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days, including British Museum's purchase of an 18th century Indian watercolour miniature and a Saxon seal matrix.

Although turned down at the time by the British Museum, a 2nd century vase with Bacchic ornament found by Gavin Hamilton near Hadrian’s villa in Tivoli c.1771 proved a sensation with 18th century connoisseurs.

This pair of 19th century electroplated cups, offered by Andrew Smith & Son (21% buyer’s premium) in Alresford on December 11, is stamped for the noted Sydney silversmith Evan Jones (1846-1917).

The Design sale at Christie’s New York (25/20% buyer’s premium) on December 13 included the return to the auction room of one of the famous series of electroplated teapots made by James Dixon & Sons, Sheffield, c.1879, to designs by Christopher Dresser.

Our weekly selection from salerooms.

In late January, New York hosts a clutch of high-calibre dealer events coinciding with the major auctions.

The sale at Kingham & Orme (20% buyer’s premium) in Evesham on December 6-7 included the second instalment of the remarkable Shennan collection of silver mustard pots, this time featuring examples made in the reigns of George IV to Victoria (1821-1901).

Our weekly selection from salerooms.

A creamware American-market jug probably made in Liverpool, c.1800, is offered by Pennsylvania dealership Earle D Vandekar of Knightsbridge at the New York Antique Ceramics Fair.

It took just one sale to disperse a collection of pre-civil war silver painstakingly amassed in just over a quarter of a century at the rate of one piece a year.

Sotheby’s (25% buyer’s premium) sale of art and antiques from the Regency manor house Spetchley Park in Wychavon, Worcestershire, held in London on December 11, included a range of ‘kunstkammer’ objects amassed by the Berkeley family in the 19th century.

A view from the steps of the 42nd Street New York Public Library completed in 1915 by US artist Jules André Smith is among the highlights at Master Drawings New York.

An atypical visitor to a recent sale at Canterbury Auction Galleries (24% buyer’s premium) was a Norwegian silver gilt brudekrone dating from the late 18th or early 19th century.

This rediscovered drawing of the future George IV (1762-1830) is believed to have been owned by his true love Maria Fitzherbert (1756-1837).

A white porcelain sculpture made in the experimental years of the Chelsea factory has been acquired for the national ceramics collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Trade bodies and dealers with shops have given a collective thumbs-up to the new Conservative government’s pledge to slash small business rates by half.