UK

Although taught by Bernard Cuzner at the St Margaret School of Art and a contemporary of both Dorrie Nossiter and Katie Eadie, George Edward Hunt (1892-1960) is not the best-known jeweller of the Birmingham Group.

Pearls and coloured stones remain strong – but, fuelled by interest from China (and, to a lesser, extent, the Middle East), so does amber.

Some of the galleries affected by redevelopment in Cork Street, Mayfair, have been given hope that they can move back once the work is completed.

The manager of a Hampshire auction house which collapsed owing money and goods to hundreds of consignors has failed to secure new saleroom premises less than ten miles away.

Standing in the same spot where he had placed the winning £3.25m bid for an Egyptian statue of Isis six months before, London dealer Daniel Katz was again in action at Christie’s South Kensington’s latest antiquities sale.

Last week was a busy one for glass and ceramics in the London rooms with five auctions taking place over the space of 48 hours and some bullish prices for top pieces.

The original autograph draft manuscript for Gerard Manley Hopkins’ 1879 poem ‘Binsey Poplars’ has been acquired by the Bodleian Libraries.

A single pearl-drop earring worn by Charles I at his execution in 1649, a maharaja’s coat richly embroidered with pearls c.1870, and a necklace of cultured pearls given to Marilyn Monroe by Joe DiMaggio in 1954 – all part of an exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum this autumn.

Fellows’ latest quarterly Vintage & Modern Wristwatch auction included a rare 1940s Rolex Oyster, the so-called ‘monobloc’ chronograph.

The Mishneh Torah was withdrawn from a recent Sotheby’s sale at the eleventh hour after vendors Michael and Judy Steinhard struck a private treaty sale with The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

One of the highlights of the latest raft of Islamic auctions in London was an unusual half-moon-shaped 10th/11th century granite temple step from Sri Lanka which had spent years in a Devon garden.

GALLERY NEWS – Jamie Rountree of Rountree Fine Art and Oliver Swann of Tryon Gallery have announced that they will merge their two companies under the new name of Rountree Tryon.

“An armadillo for you, from Jonathan Ross,” says the courier as he returns a box midway through my interview with Alexis Turner.

MK Auctions are selling a Flemish verdure tapestry at their sale on May 5.

Featuring only 22 lots, Sotheby’s latest sale of Orientalist art was a small affair but one that definitely packed a big punch.

This previously unrecorded late work by Joseph Wright of Derby (1734-97), ‘Landscape with Rainbow’, sold for £125,000 at Bellmans in Wisborough Green, West Sussex.

Here is a selection of photos of some of the rising stars and the long-established businesses of the antiques trade who won honours at a double awards ceremony hosted by the Decorative Antiques and Textiles Fair in Battersea last week.

The rising stars and the long-established businesses of the antiques trade were both recognised at a double awards ceremony hosted by the Decorative Antiques and Textiles Fair in Battersea last week

‘Masterpiece London’ has announced a link with Hong Kong’s ‘Fine Art Asia’ this year, with the incorporation of a Hong Kong Pavilion at the fourth edition of the London fair from June 26-July 3.

The latest blow to hit antiques dealers in Portobello Road has left them looking for the secure parking needed to run their businesses.