UK

An ‘unworked’ ivory gong has been removed from exhibition at Sandringham House on the grounds that it was being used for commercial purposes.

A rare ebonised framed armchair after the original design by Edward William Godwin (1833-86) sold for £44,000 (plus 18% premium) at Moore Allen & Innocent in Cirencester on April 21.

Several single-owner collections boosted the total of Tennants’ (20% buyer’s premium) Spring Fine Art Sale in Leyburn, North Yorkshire, on March 25.

Saxon Durrant started his business Metroretro in 1994. His Essex firm offers bespoke and reclaimed furniture and also provides props to film production companies. He will be exhibiting at Salvo Fair on June 23-25.

A painting by British landscape artist Harry Epworth Allen (1894-1958) drew a flurry of bids at Gardiner Houlgate (20% buyer’s premium) in Corsham near Bath on March 29-31.

The Buxton Antiques Fair, organised by Cooper Events, runs from May 18-21 in Buxton Pavilion Gardens. It is a quiet yet well-respected presence in the annual fair calendar and has withstood many market changes since it opened more than 50 years ago.

For the second year running, two major events – the ABA’s London International Antiquarian Book Fair, running from June 1-3 at the National Hall, Olympia, and the London International Book Fair organised by the PBFA at the ILEC Conference Centre in SW6 on June 2-3 – will run under the marketing umbrella Rare Books London.

A fine collection of Meiji and 19th century Chinese ivory works of art sold at Hansons (17.5% buyer’s premium) offered a window onto a turbulent market.

Textiles dealers Caroline Zoob and Hetty Purbrick, organisers of the annual Decorative Living Fair at Eridge Park in Kent, met more than 20 years ago when they were exhibiting at the Kensington Brocante.

Last week, Sherborne dealer Patrick Macintosh sold a pair of beds off Instagram in a matter of minutes.

Silver was among the success stories of the wide-ranging March 30-April 1 sale at Hansons, in particular a 1705 Britannia standard chocolate pot.

In what has been a buoyant first quarter for clocks of quality, the 109 examples at Chiswick Auctions’ (22% buyer’s premium) March 21 sale of horology and European works of art made a significant contribution to the £225,000 taken by the 275 lots on offer.

A selling exhibition at the National Glass Fair on Sunday, May 7, will showcase some 40 to 50 pieces from the contemporary glassmaker Norman Stuart-Clarke who will be at the fair himself.

What Aylsham auction house Keys (20% buyer’s premium) considered one of the largest private collections of Lowestoft ever to come to market was a near sell-out on March 21.

It wasn’t so much a Road to Damascus moment for Edward Crichton but more the road back to Bury St Edmunds, a car journey that provided the Lacy Scott & Knight auctioneer with much-needed think time.

News about fairs and markets in the Brighton area...

One of the more intriguing clocks to come in the market this spring was this early 18th century bracket clock signed to the backplate Cha [rles] Goode, London offered at Duke’s (22% buyer’s premium) on April 12.

Alan Wilkinson is in a good position to assess the current state of the Brighton and Lewes flea markets, having owned them for 25 years. Both markets are fully let with a total of 80 stallholders and 40 cabinets overall.

Networking is far more than a good chinwag. As Baldwin’s of St James’s medal specialist Mark Smith explains, it can also be good business.