UK

The overall total from the latest London series of Contemporary art auctions was down year-on-year. With one day sale still to run at the time of going to press, the running total of £197.4m from the sales at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips compared to £253.9m from the equivalent sales in 2019.

Dealer Michael Shapiro’s exhibition of Modernist photography showcases works capturing a fundamental shift in style.

Two items in focus at Midhurst

Many familiar names were represented in a concentrated 145-lot specialist sale of British and Continental glass at McTear’s (24% buyer’s premium), but the winner by a distance was Lalique’s Formose green glass vase.

Drew Pritchard is enlarging his showroom in the Welsh market town of Conwy. The first set of works are set to last about six to eight weeks, and the shop will be closed from February 21-March 25.

While furniture and books fully justified its title, The Oxford Library Sale at Mallams (22.5% buyer’s premium) was led by a surprise star: a rather lowly regarded gesso bust of the sort that would have been a minor decoration to such a room.

When buying back their heritage, Cardiff City FC and supporters may not be in the same financial league as Manchester United, but they were a welcome factor at Lockdales (19.5% buyer’s premium).

A UK-based design studio trio last year took over the UK licence to the archive of Florence Broadhurst, an Australian designer whose whirlwind life came to a tragic end in 1977.

The Fish Footman puppet is among the most sought after of the entire back catalogue of Pelham Puppets.

According to patent documents dated February 1928, Woodlite headlamps invented by a William G Woods of Los Angeles were said to give the driver better illumination of distant objects ahead.

Not all the posters making four figures at auction fall into the usual Star Wars/James Bond/Hammer/early horror bracket.

The market for both film and music posters is booming but original artwork for such designs can also be a very collectable option for buyers.

The first of the year’s two spring dates for the popular Vintage Bazaar held in the West Country will be on Saturday, March 14.

As well as painting sunny pictures of children on the beaches of Cornwall, Dorothea Sharp (1874-1955) frequently turned her paintbrush to still-lifes.

Publisher tried to link book to the poet to boost sales but a revised version was issued instead

Moseley Antiques Emporium south of Birmingham city centre is closing after more than 25 years in business.

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.

The Victorian artist John Bagnold Burgess (1829- 97), grandson of a painter who counted Thomas Gainsborough among his pupils, was best known as a painter of genre scenes.

The recent auction of 20th century design at Sworders (25% buyer’s premium) in Stansted Mountfitchet was underpinned by more than 60 consignments from the estate of MJ Long.

Shin-hanga, meaning ‘new prints’, emerged in Japan during the early 20th century. Aimed at Western tastes, the artistic movement combined the traditional colourful woodblock prints known as ukiyo-e with nostalgic and romanticised Japanese subjects.