UK

The Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association has signed up US online marketplace Biblio as chief sponsor of its flagship annual fair on June 7-9.

Historical weapons from the personal armoury of Tipu Sultan will be offered for sale in Oxfordshire in the spring.

This Aesthetic movement X-frame armchair took £11,000 against an estimate of just £100-150 at Lawrences of Crewkerne.

With Biblio as partner and a rebrand of its annual fair, the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association is expecting a spike in visitors and exhibitors at its flagship event.

Pistols remain one of the most popular of all categories among gun collectors and the winter sales in London proved a bumper season for handguns, from the earliest wheel-locks of the late 16th century to the semi-automatics which ushered in the modern age at the end of the 19th century.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

The Thomas Del Mar (24% buyer’s premium) sale in London on December 5 included several excellent pairs of English pistols.

This rare 1870s Zulu shield or Isihlangu below sold for £1650 at the C&T (20% buyer’s premium) auction of the Mick Woodfield collection of Zulu and other tribal weapons in Tunbridge Wells on January 9.

Modern British pictures by female artists made a major contribution to the bottom line at Sworders’ (23% buyer’s premium) dispersal of the Barbara Holliday Collection.

An unusual Chinese School picture of a 17th century Dutch missionary scene led Christie’s (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) £2m sale of topographical pictures in London.

British art specialist Patricia Jordan Evans rounds off more than four decades in the trade with her next show called 'The Last Hurrah! 45 Years at Bohun Gallery'.

A rare pair of 19th century silver fish servers are on offer from Schredds at next month’s Petersfield Antiques Fair.

As parliamentary debates on future trade relations with the EU raged in London, cross-border business carried on regardless in West Sussex at IACF’s Ardingly International Antiques and Collectors Fair on January 15-16.

Following the fall of Seringapatam in India on May 4, 1799, portions of the spoils were variously allocated to senior officers of the British force.

An English School painting depicting one of the earliest venues in cricket was knocked down at £14,000 in a Winchester auction.

Mark Peaker is co-founder and chief executive of Hong Kong’s 3812 Gallery, which specialises in Chinese post-war and contemporary art with a focus on ink. A new branch of the business opened in St James’s, London, last year. The exhibition 'Echoes' runs from January 28-March 9.

Once breech-loading guns became the norm, the gun itself was only one part of the equation. Ammunition was the great variable, as demonstrated by the advertising display boards produced in large numbers for the gun shops and ironmongers of the United Kingdom.