UK

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

Three previously unheard tracks by the band that went on to become Radiohead surfaced thanks to a demo cassette that sold at Merseyside auction house Omega (28% buyer’s premium inc VAT).

They sang about a Champagne Supernova but ‘24 large cans of quality lager’ were more to their taste when Oasis stipulated their needs for band and crew at an early gig.

With hindsight, the boast made by the Flying Steam Company – 'To China in Twenty-Four Hours Certain' – was a tad ambitious.

Experiments with porcelain at the Swansea factory began in 1814 with the arrival of William Billingsley and Samuel Walker from the Nantgarw China Works.

A note penned in December 1963 by Mary Elizabeth Smith from The Mendips, Menlove Avenue, Liverpool, to a Miss V Stoker of 54 Pirton Road, Hitchin, sold for £1300 to a UK online bidder at Wolverhampton saleroom Cuttlestones (17.5% buyer’s premium) on March 19.

One year into lockdown and ahead of a select Sotheby’s sale of sculpture and bronzes, Dino Tomasso tells ATG how having the time to reflect has forged a new path – and name – for Tomasso Brothers Fine Art

While the Grand Hotel, Birmingham, may not have the same ring as Hotel California, in the Sixties it was the place to check in. And even leave afterwards.

More Mod Brit delights from the Freer collection kept in a house full to bursting point

American film producer Elliott Kastner (1930- 2010) was responsible for many well-known movies including The Long Goodbye (1973), The Missouri Breaks (1976) and Angel Heart (1987).

After three lockdowns but also a successful auction launch last August in between closures, Graham Hessell will be throwing open the doors once again to his Melford Antiques, Interiors & Lifestyle Centre on April 12.

Portraits boosted takings at Mallams’ (24% buyer’s premium) latest picture sale in Oxford.

The late Michael Armstrong was such a film fanatic that when the local cinema closed in his home town in 1993 he opened his own mini replica in his garage, complete with recycled fixtures and fittings.

The Affordable Art Fair has announced its live show dates this year in London, New York, Melbourne, Hong Kong and cities in Europe.

Thirteen lots in the exotically named Dr Atomicas Journey into Cool auction at Bishop & Miller in Stowmarket on May 7 have been consigned from an individual who worked for 30 years in the film industry with some of the biggest names.

Having postponed the sale in November and again in January, Chorley’s finally got to sell an exceptional private collection of early English porcelain in Prinknash Abbey, Gloucestershire, on March 24.

A private collection of pictures helped Parker Fine Art Auctions to its highest total since opening in Farnham last year.