UK

Two large 18th century gold medals depicting events from the reign of Catherine the Great sold for spectacular sums at Duke’s latest auction in Dorchester.

A remarkable hoard of coins shedding light on the power struggles between Vikings and Anglo-Saxons has come onto the open market in a highly unusual sale.

Drama came at a recent sale at Taylor’s Auction Rooms in Montrose when a lot of two pieces of Chinese blue and white porcelain sold for £200,000.

This portrait by Glyn Warren Philpot (1884-1937) was the star performer of pictures formerly in Sir Noël Coward’s collection sold at Christie’s South Kensington.

The BADA Antiques & Fine Art Fair opened last Wednesday on a sunny Duke of York Square in Chelsea, welcoming a steady stream of visitors.

Discovered in a pile of objects waiting to be tipped at a routine house clearance, a pair of large ceramic plaques will be offered at Gary Don in Leeds this week.

Bath auctioneers Gardiner Houlgate (20% buyer’s premium) set a new house record on March 12 with the sale of a guitar by the celebrated French luthier Jean-Baptiste Voboam (1658-after 1731) for £120,000.

Stable year-on-year values across art and antique exports as a whole mask major changes in influence among the UK’s trading partners in 2014.

A picture stolen from a Hertfordshire house three years ago and recently recovered sold at an Essex auction last week for £80,000.

“Most of us will never experience space, which explains why space-flown items are in such high demand. Their travels imbue them with an almost mystical aura.”

COMMENT: The TEFAF Report shows that the art market has fully recovered since the 2008 financial crash, but still faces a number of challenges, such as late or non-payment.

Clarion Events have announced a change of date for the Antiques for Everyone winter fair. It will now run from November 19-22 in Hall 3 at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham.

A Chelsea porcelain beaker with blue and white botanical decoration caused a sensation at Peter Wilson latest sale in Nantwich. Estimated at £100-200, it sold at £37,000.

Christie’s South Kensington celebrated their 40th anniversary year with a 1970s themed party at their Old Brompton Road saleroom. Current staff, former employees and others connected with CSK turned out in droves on March 4 to raise a glass to the auction house.

The directors of the ‘Harrogate Antique & Fine Art Fair’ have cancelled this year’s spring event due to the clash with the Tour de Yorkshire cycle race now taking place on May 1-3.

Potteries Auctions in Staffordshire are offering this large William Moorcroft exhibition vase at their second auction in their new premises in Silverdale on April 25.

More information has emerged about the colourful recent history of the £5m Wolsey Angels.

Holloway’s of Banbury, founded in the early 1970s by the late Tim Holloway and owned since 2001 by Nick Williams, is to join Charles Ross Auctioneers, owned by Russell Beard.

How do you prevent your own identity as a dealer being subsumed by that of the fair at which you are exhibiting?

The online-only sale of a modern British gallantry award estimated at a hefty £100,000-120,000 was always going to be an interesting test of the market.