UK

A sensational result emerged for the artist-potter Hans Coper (1920-81) at the 20th Century & Contemporary sale at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood in Exeter.

An Old Master painting hung in the spare bedroom of a family home in Oxfordshire sold for a surprise £440,000 (plus 20% buyer’s premium) at Holloway’s of Banbury.

Last year there were fears the Metropolitan Police’s Art & Antiques Unit would be closed after two of its members were seconded to the Grenfell Tower fire enquiry. However, in December the team was reunited and a new boss Det Sgt Rob Upham, with 23 years’ experience in the Met, was brought in to lead the team. ATG caught up with him recently.

Tutu, a previously lost portrait by Ben Enwonwu (1917-94) of the Ife royal princess Adetutu Ademiluyi set a new record for the artist at Bonhams’ Africa Now auction.

More than 100 paintings owned by the Royal Society of Marine Artists were dispersed in a Norfolk auction.

The first annual exhibition at English Antiques, in the small Suffolk market town of Eye, is titled 'A Taste of the Orient'.

“Mid-century is pretty unstoppable as the ‘new antique’ with exhibitions on Fifties and Sixties designers like Charles and Ray Eames and Harry Bertoia now regular events,” says Lucy Ryder Richardson, founder with Petra Curtis of the Midcentury Modern Shows.

The 20th century portraitist Meredith Frampton (1894-1984) achieved remarkable success in a relatively short career.

The script for the very first Doctor Who episode owned by the first actor to play the role is coming up at auction in the West Midlands.

“We were particularly encouraged by the performance of the furniture with many pieces selling to trade and private buyers for ‘old school’ prices.”

A fresh-to-market consignment involving great names of Art Nouveau/Arts & Crafts and a New York buyer determined to have it… It hasn’t taken long for newcomer Heliers Auction (18% buyer’s premium) to come up with the sort of winning combination all auctioneers hope for.

An album of Indian photographs sold for £32,000 in Edinburgh provided ATG’s Pick of the Week in the previous issue (No 2331), but there was much more on offer in that 550-lot Scottish sale.

A single-owner collection of Tri-ang and other British toys will go under the hammer in what has been described as the largest of its type to come to auction.

Commonly known as a What The Butler Saw machine, a late 19th-early 20th century Mutoscope was the most alluring of a consignment of a collection of amusement arcade machines offered at Canterbury Auction Galleries (20% buyer’s premium).

Works by Pablo Picasso (1881- 1973) dominated the latest series of Impressionist and Modern art auctions in London, with Gurr Johns securing nearly all of them.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

Don’t call it dated, fusty or old-fangled. The British Antique Dealers’ Association (BADA) is here to prove that antiques have a place even in contemporary homes.

The British Antique Dealers’ Association is hoping its new website, which launches this week ahead of the BADA 2018 fair (March 14-20), will propel dealer members and their stock to the top of internet search rankings when buyers are looking for antique objects from dealers.

Outselling much of the sort of furniture its owner could have worked on, an 18th century carpenter’s oak tool chest on stand was among the pleasant surprises for vendors at the opening sale of the year at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood (21% buyer’s premium).