UK

Cheffins of Cambridge is offering two drawings by Alberto Giacometti (1901-66) at auction on October 12.

Southern softness and northern grit were both on display at Tennants (20% buyer’s premium) of Leyburn on July 15.

Mr Benn is already the hero of his own series of illustrated children’s books and a 13-episode BBC animated programme. In his 50th year, however, there are displays of renewed interest in this adventurous everyman.

Found among the contents of a storage unit, a watercolour of Venice by Edward Lear (1812-88) starred in Brighton General Auctions’ (15% buyer’s premium) sale on July 28.

A new book, The British Underground Press of the Sixties, marks the birth of the countercultural press and all the music, fashion and controversy it represented.

Alex Robins of Antique Fairs Cornwall (AFC Fairs) has run her biannual two-day antiques, vintage and decorative fairs at the Royal Cornwall Showground for nine years.

Condensed into one day instead of the usual two, the Summer Sale at Tennants (20% buyer’s premium) nevertheless provided a bird’s eye view of the middle market which these triannual ‘fine’ auctions at Leyburn traditionally offer.

With a thriving antiques and retro trade business, Mike and Vicky Mills of Antique Interiors in the Lincolnshire town of Gainsborough are also one of the UK’s largest dealers in stained-glass windows.

A pair of white glazed figures of musicians made by the Lowestoft factory c.1770 sold for £4000 at the July 18 sale at Keys (plus 20% buyer’s premium) of Aylsham.

The Doccia factory is perhaps best known for its hard-paste sculptures – many of them near-direct copies in porcelain of 17th and early 18th century bronzes. The key figure is the talented modeller Gaspero Bruschi, himself a Florentine sculptor.

Mark Law’s deal to buy auction firm Dreweatts and the Mallett brand from stamp dealer group Stanley Gibbons has collapsed.

Triple lens or Triunial magic lanterns were the iPhone 8 of their day. Since the days of the Sturm lantern in the 17th century, the technology had developed from basic projectors producing small, dimly lit images, to these magnificent machines capable of spectacular technicolour lantern entertainments.