Front Page and News

Norfolk auction house Keys has marked the end of its 65th year in business by gaining independence from its estate agency parent company.

Serendipity had it that two important, but scantily catalogued, lots of European glass emerged for sale in the south of England in early January.

The Athenian silver dekadrachm c.469/465-460BC is among the ancient world’s most celebrated coins – and a splendid example appeared for sale in New York last week.

UK art shippers are urging the government to speed up Brexit ‘deal or no deal’ preparations at the country’s major ferry ports as the UK prepares to leave the European Union on March 29.

A previously unrecorded teabowl and saucer attributed to a pioneering American porcelain factory is expected to bring a six-figure sum when offered for sale in Salisbury next month.

Four well-known dealerships have teamed up with auction houses for major sales of stock in the early months of the year.

Testament to a vibrant market for vintage Tudor wristwatches, a very scarce Oysterdate – the reference 7031 or ‘Homeplate’ – proved the star of Hansons’ Christmas auction at Bishton Hall, Staffordshire.

Did the final days of 2018 provide the year’s greatest discovery? Bidders who pursued a bronze dragon head from €20,000 to €2.4m (£2.2m) at the Drouot in Paris on December 17 certainly thought so.

A new auction record for the idiosyncratic stonewares of the Martin brothers was established at Phillips’ Design sale in New York.

Estimated at £40-60, this unusual Chinese scholar’s object took £32,000 (plus buyer’s premium) at a recent auction at Rogers Jones in Cardiff.

Posters covering band or artist appearances during the embryonic days of their development are proving very popular at auction – a trend underlined by a group of 1966 Pink Floyd designs.

The antiques trade is to be celebrated in the New Year at a museum exhibition in County Durham.

A single-owner private collection, including significant works by artists from the Modern British canon, will be sold at Sworders in Stansted Mountfitchet on January 15.

A lavish Viennese gold-mounted porcelain tureen and stand – the epitome of Habsburg court luxury during the reign of the Holy Roman emperor Charles VI – topped Bonhams’ Fine European Ceramics sale in London on December 6.

Penguin patties, seal cutlets and roast reindeer – and lots of whisky – were on the menu for a famous meal which was followed by ‘Sledges at 12.30’.