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Bid to €60,000 (£53,100) in a March 16 sale held by Venator & Hanstein (23% buyer’s premium) was a group of letters sent by Charles Darwin in the 1860s and ‘70s to a German botanist, Friedrich Hildebrand.

Boasting a new name and venue, the ABA’s annual book fair seems poised to expand its reach to a wider range of clients while retaining its strong exhibitor base.

Buildings constructed out of straw bales sound more like the world of Channel 4’s Grand Designs rather than the often solidly traditional realm of art and antiques auctioneers.

Dealer Anthony Bucke has been in the trade for 35 years and opened an antiques centre in the Somerset town of Crewkerne in 2012.

“We’ve had two-day antiques and collectors’ fairs at the Newbury Showground before but not on a Saturday and Sunday – the weather was downright miserable but we had a really successful first weekend,“ said IACF’s Grant Nicholas, talking about the recent weekend event on April 28-29.

Suffolk auction house Bishop & Miller is holding its first-ever specialist Oriental Art and Antiques Sale on May 24.

A speciality for collectors of silver wine labels are the enamelled examples produced in Battersea in the 18th century.

Australian enthusiasts did much to buoy up the Royal Doulton market in its 1990s pomp. And one such fan certainly did his bit to bring some life to what can now be a weak market by consigning a choice collection of Lambeth, flambé, Burslem and prototype wares to Kingham & Orme (20% buyer’s premium).

The coming weeks will offer some special, if sometimes very costly, opportunities for bird lovers.

Likely to be the rarest and most expensive book available at the PBFA’s 'London Antiquarian Book Fair' is a copy of 'Caractères' by the French philosopher and satirist Jean de La Bruyère.

This Allegory of Spring by the 17th century Italian artist Pietro Liberi (Padua 1605-Venice 1687) is one of the works in the May 21 auction of Old Master paintings and furnishings that opens Babuino’s next auction series in Rome.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from May 15-25, 2018.

Whether you’re in the market for mammoths or missiles, for 10 years Summers Place Auctions has been a likely destination. In 2008 SPA held its first auction, having been formed the year before.

A campaign to raise funds for legal advice on the government’s ivory ban proposals has received “a positive response”, according to dealer body BADA, which is organising the endeavour on behalf of the antiques sector.

Three modestly valued works in regional sales.

Mexican lots, one of them relating to the working of a silver mine in the 16th century, produced some of the higher bids in a recent Americana sale.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

A 1940 painting of Valle Crucis Abbey is one of the key pictures in Bohun Gallery’s exhibition 'John Piper: A Very English Artist'.

MADAM – We have been following the ivory debate in your pages with anxious concern, in spite of being specialists in vernacular, naive and folk art, whose business would rarely be directly impacted by the near-total ivory ban planned by the government.

Briefly catalogued as a 19th century French cabinet embellished with gilt metal mounts and a jasperware plaque, this highly decorative piece shown below was a stand-out offering at Rayleigh auction house Stacey’s (20% buyer’s premium).