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Coin-grading firm The Certified Collectibles Group (CCG) has expanded again in the UK and will open an office in London in April on the third floor of dealership Spink’s headquarters.

The long-term future of the historic London Silver Vaults is uncertain as the landlord weighs up options for the building.

Australian bookseller Sally Burdon has been elected president of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB). She succeeds Gonzalo F Pontes who was president from 2016-18.

A country house library in south-west Scotland was the source of an album of 19th century photographs of India that provided a Valentine’s Day surprise at Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh.

This oil painting of the RMS Queen Mary, below, by marine painter William McDowell (1888-1950) was taken to a multi-estimate £12,000 at Surrey saleroom John Nicholson’s (24% buyer’s premium).

Look around at any edition of the Decorative Antiques and Textiles Fair and there will be dealers hastily rehanging and restocking empty spaces on their stands.

Tim Wilkes, a leading expert in Islamic coinage, has joined the coin department at London auction house Dix Noonan Webb.

Specialists who relaunched North Yorkshire auction house generate old-school optimism.

Chiswick Auctions (25/12% buyer’s premium) has held its first dedicated Old Masters sale, capitalising on the void left by Christie’s South Kensington’s closure last year.

Silver dealer Alastair Dickenson had a blast from the past when he flicked through the pages of ATG recently.

“The selling price was really encouraging,” said Chichester auctioneer Peter Parker after an 18th century walnut chest made £5800, “but it just emphasises how polarised the market is between the top end and the rest.”

Antiques dealer and fair organiser Marcus Potts is an Art Deco and early 20th century ceramics man, but he is an absolute mine of information on vintage toys.

MADAM – With the plethora of antiques-related shows on television, may I suggest that perhaps you could use your influence to have a specialist present a show on the subject of ivory in art.

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period February 8-14, 2018. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

Another classic piece of English furniture to go well above expectations was a Regency mahogany window seat in the style of George Bullock offered by the Cumbrian firm 1818 Auctioneers (17/12% buyer’s premium).

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships

MADAM – Although I think that the BADA certification programme goes some way to pacifying the waters, the conservationists have very strong support even if they are blind to the past as seen in the story about wildlife charity Born Free launching an ivory ‘amnesty’ (ATG No 2329).

The Specialist Glass Fair, founded in 1991 by Patricia Hier and run for 16 years by Paul Bishop, will be held on Sunday, February 25.

MADAM – The continual allure of the Napoleonic period as referenced in Dealers’ Diary recently (‘Nutty about Napoleon', ATG No 2327) is indeed most interesting.

This late 19th century ‘natural history’ specimen purports to be the mummified body of a creature that was half mammal and half fish.