UK

Johannes Schröder (1870-1942) was not only a wealthy German merchant but also a globetrotter and a pioneer in utilising the invention of photography to document his time.

The English porcelain specialist Simon Spero opens his 37th catalogued exhibition this week in his Kensington shop.

Gary Wallis is based in Henley-on-Thames, trades in anything from childhood collectables to potential heirlooms and is a regular at The Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair in Battersea.

Ken Garrard runs Origin Antiques with his father Steve. Their business is based in The Barn on Turkey Cock Lane near Colchester and sells antique, vintage and contemporary furniture.

No fewer than 840 lots were offered in the bumper April 5-6 sale held by Dominic Winter (19.5% buyer’s premium). The most successful of them, at a record £32,000, was a presentation copy of a pioneering work that has been described as “the first practical statement of socialist doctrine”, Robert Owen’s A New View of Society… of 1813-14.

An ‘Unfashionable’ single-owner collection from a London club attracted trade and private buyers. The 98-lot sale on April 5 was held by British pictures specialist Harry Moore-Gwyn at 25 Blythe Road (20% buyer’s premium) in West Kensington.

The next Chelsea Art Fair takes place from April 27-30 and, as fair director Ben Cooper sees it, the attraction of the event comes down to two key elements: quality and breadth of selection.

Nearly a quarter of the sale total at the auction held by Harry Moore-Gwyn at 25 Blythe Road (20% buyer’s premium) in West Kensington on April 5 came from a collection of original cartoons.

James Howe’s (1780-1836) c.1817 All Hallow’s Fair on Calton Hill shows an event that was already a thing of the past when the picture was completed.

A Beatrix Potter collection running to 62 lots got a Forum Auctions (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) sale of March 30 up and running.

Keeley Harris is so pleased with the way her vintage home shows are going that she is expanding them.

A work by one of Lebanon’s most eminent painters, Khalil Saleeby (1870-1928), surfaced at Hansons (17.5% buyer’s premium) of Etwall in Derbyshire.

Offered by Keys (20% buyer’s premium) on April 6, the Sir Malcolm Arnold Collection proved to be a problematic one.

Ahead of IACF’s popular Shepton Mallet antiques and collectors’ fair from May 5-7, with up to 600 standholders, the organisers have announced that the March event showed an impressive increase in buyers’ attendance.

An intriguing 18th century watercolour of a tree struck by lightning fetched a multi-estimate sum at Forum Auctions’ (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) March 30 sale in London.

Maxine Stonehill of Pop Up Vintage Fairs has launched a vintage market at a new London location.

The opening of the Turner Contemporary in Margate in 2011 reinvigorated the tourism industry in the north Kent area.

Victorian exuberance or Georgian elegance – you pays your money and takes your choice. At Lyon & Turnbull (25% buyer’s premium) on April 5, it cost a great deal for the former and rather less for the latter.