UK

The government’s imminent ivory law change has forced an international collectors’ conference to pull out of London and move overseas.

The antiquarian book trade is lobbying for changes to the proposed EU law designed to crack down on imports of cultural goods ‘more than 250 years old’.

A good helping of late Victorian pictures featured among the top prices on June 6 at Lawrences (20% buyer’s premium) of Bletchingley in Surrey.

Most of the UK may be going through a heatwave, but even if the clouds appear IACF’s new three-day antiques and collectors’ fair at the Staffordshire Showground will shine through.

It was the last flickerings of the dynasty which took salvage from the demolition site and put it back into the drawing room.

Like many artists, hands held a strong fascination for British sculptor Henry Moore (1898-1986), and he came back to the subject numerous times in his career.

The owner of an antiques shop in the Norfolk town of Diss which has been in his family for nearly 50 years is closing the business and relocating a few miles away.

Bids of £100 and upwards bought bidders a history of the English hearth and home among the Crowther lots at Cheffins on June 13-14, where 80% of the lower-priced items went to private buyers.

An Edwardian Carlton House satinwood desk of the type which was once a best-seller at auction, but an early casualty of the furniture slump, was back in favour at the Hartleys (17.5% buyer’s premium) summer sale in Ilkley.

It’s always heartening to hear of redundant churches being put to another use. A Grade II-listed Victorian church in Wolverhampton which has been empty for more than a decade is set to open as an antiques centre later this month.

The Meissen model of Count Bruhl’s Tailor was a major attraction at Hampshire auction house Jacobs & Hunt (26% buyer’s premium).

For Paul Nunn, founder of antique clocks and barometers dealership Olde Time, the virtues of fairs and the internet have always been secondary to that of the physical shop.

MADAM – News that the British Museum is to accept the donation of more than 500 Chinese ivory figures from the Sir Victor Sassoon collection, mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries, is to be welcomed… to a degree!

Pitched at £100-150, a small North American Native woven pouch attracted interest from London, Continental and US specialists at Tennants’ (23% buyer’s premium) Militaria & Ethnographica offering at Leyburn.

From lighthouses and ships in distress to labourers and landscapes, the two exhibitions at The Fine Art Society in Edinburgh this month celebrate three centuries of Scotland’s art.

From the same source which provided Sotheby’s success with a fine collection of Scottish Colourist works (ATG No 2347), a large late 19th version of the Medici Vase led the two-day Glasgow sale at Great Western Auctions (23% buyer’s premium).

In our continuing series looking through the keyhole of ‘bricks and mortar’ shops and centres, ATG talks to Richard Payne- Withers, who runs Bridport Antiques with his wife Samantha.

MADAM – I am writing to counter the simplistic view espoused by Niall Milligan concerning the banning of ivory (Letters, ATG No 2348).

Art Deco bronze and ivory figures continue to do well – despite the imminent legislation that could render some of them illegal to sell.